UC-NRLF 


GIFT  OF 
Class   of   1900 


»  CALIFORNIA 
ANTIC  AND  F  RGEFUL 

A  PLEA  FOR    i  h 
RESERVATION  A 
IN FOR* 

TO  > 


JOHN  F.  DAV 


ret? 

riHi&j 


sttrprist.  —DAVID 

»»  "  California  t,r-~ 


A.  M.  P- 


Discovery  of  San  Francisco  Bay  by  Pot  tola.*' 
From  the  oil  painting  by 

William  Keith, 

n  tht  possession  of  Mrs.  Phoebe  A.  Hearst, 
at  Hacienda  del  Pozo  de  Verona,  Cal 


»  CALIFORNIA 
ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL  > 

A  PLEA  FOR  THE  COLLECTION 

PRESERVATION  AND  DIFFUSION  OF 

INFORMATION  RELATING 

TO  PACIFIC  COAST 

HISTORY 

BY 

JOHN  F.  DAVIS 

* 

The  Californian  loves  his  state 
because  his  state  loves  him.  He 
returns  her  love  with  a  fierce 
affeBion  that  to  men  who  do 
not  know  California  is  always  a 
surprise.— DAVID  STARR  JORDAN 

in  «<  California  and  the  Calif  or  nians." 


SAN  FRANCISCO 

A.  M.  ROBERTSON 

1914 


Copyright,   1914,  by 

A.   M.   ROBERTSON, 

San  Francisco. 


-G\ 


Printed  by 

Taylor,  Nash  &  Taylor 
San  Francisco 


As  we  transmit  our  institutions,  so  we  shall  transmit  our 
blood  and  our  names  to  future  ages  and  populations.  What 
multitudes  shall  throng  these  shores,  what  cities  shall  gem  the 
borders  of  the  sea!  Here  all  peoples  and  all  tongues  shall  meet. 
Here  shall  be  a  more  perfect  civilization,  a  more  thorough  in- 
tellectual development,  a  firmer  faith,  a  more  reverent  worship. 
Perhaps,  as  we  look  back  to  the  struggle  of  an  earlier  age,  and 
mark  the  steps  of  our  ancestors  in  the  career  we  have  traced, 
so  some  thoughtful  man  of  letters  in  ages  yet  to  come  may  bring 
to  light  the  history  of  this  shore  or  of  this  day.  I  am  sure, 
fellow  citizens,  that  whoever  shall  hereafter  read  it  will  per- 
ceive that  our  pride  and  joy  are  dimmed  by  no  stain  of  selfish- 
ness. Our  pride  is  for  humanity;  our  joy  is  for  the  world  ; 
and  amid  all  the  wonders  of  past  achievement  and  all  the 
splendors  of  present  success,  we  turn  with  swelling  hearts  to 
gaze  into  the  boundless  future,  with  the  earnest  conviction  that 
it  will  develop  a  universal  brotherhood  of  man. 

—  E.  D.  BAKER,  Atlantic  Cable  Address. 


376" 


><>.. .... 


.   \ 

TO 

CHARLES  STETSON  WHEELER 

AN  ABLE  ADVOCATE 
A  GOOD  CITIZEN,  A  DEVOTED  HUSBAND  AND  FATHER 

A  LOYAL  FRIEND 

THIS  LITTLE  BOOK  IS 

AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED 


PREFACE 

This  plea  is  an  arrow  shot  into  the  air.  It  is 
the  result  of  an  address  which  I  made  at  Colton 
Hall,  in  Monterey,  upon  the  celebration  of  Admis- 
sion Day,  1908,  and  another  which  I  made  at  a 
luncheon  meeting  of  the  Commonwealth  Club,  at  the 
Palace  Hotel,  San  Francisco,  on  April  12,  1913. 
These  addresses  have  been  amplified  and  revised, 
and  certain  statistics  contained  in  them  have  been 
brought  down  to  the  end  of  1913-  In  this  form 
they  go  forth  to  a  larger  audience,  in  the  earnest 
hope  that  they  may  meet  a  kind  reception,  and  some- 
where find  a  generous  friend. 

The  subject  of  Pacific  Coast  history  is  one  of  sur- 
passing interest  to  Calif ornians.  Some  fine  additions 
to  our  store  of  knowledge  have  been  made  of  late 
years,  notably  the  treatise  of  Zoeth  S.  Eldredge  on 
"  The  Beginnings  of  San  Francisco"  published  by 
the  author,  in  San  Francisco,  in  1912 ;  the  treatise 
of  Irving  Berdine  Richman  on  "  California  under 
Spain  and  Mexico,  1535-1847,"  published  by  the 
Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  of  Boston  and  New 
Tork,  in  19  n ' ;  the  warm  appreciation  of  E.  D. 

vii 


Baker,  by  Elijah  R.  Kennedy,  entitled'1  'The  Contest 
for  California  in  18  6 1,"  published  by  the  Hough- 
ton  Mifflin  Company,  in  Boston  and  New  York,  in 
1912;  the  monumental  work  on  "Missions  and 
Missionaries  of  California,"  by  Fr.  Zephyr  in  En- 
gelhardt,  published  by  the  James  H.  Barry  Com- 
pany, of  San  Francisco,  1908-1913,  and  the  "  Guide 
to  Materials  for  the  History  of  the  United  States 
in  the  Principal  Archives  of  Mexico,"  by  Herbert 
E.  Bolt  on,  Ph.  D.,  Professor  of  American  History 
in  the  University  of  California,  the  publication  of 
which  by  the  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington, 
at  Washington,  D.  C.,  in  1913,  is  an  event  of  ep- 
ochal historical  importance.  All  of  these  works  and 
the  recent  activities  in  Spain  of  Charles  E.  Chap- 
man, the  Traveling  Fellow  of  the  University  of 
California,  the  publications  of  the  Academy  of  Paci- 
fic Coast  History,  at  Berkeley,  edited  by  F.  J. 
'Teggart,  and  the  forthcoming  publication  at  San 
Francisco  of  "A  Bibliography  of  California  and 
the  Pacific  West"  by  Robert  Ernest  Cowan,  only 
emphasize  the  importance  of  original  research  work 
in  Pacific  Coast  history,  and  the  necessity  for  prompt 
attion  to  preserve  the  remaining  sources  of  its  ro- 
mantic and  inspiring  story. 

JOHN  F.  DAVIS. 

San  Francisco,  July  I,  1914. 


Vlll 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL  i 
THE  LOVE-STORY  OF  CONCHA  ARGUELLO  61 
CONCEPCION  ARGUELLO  (Bret  Harte)  .  .  71 


IX 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

DISCOVERY  OF  SAN  FRANCISCO  BAY  BY  PORTOLA  .  Frontispiece 

CARMEL  MISSION opposite  page     6 

SUTTER'S  MILL  AT  COLOMA    .     .     .     •          "  "     18 

OLD  COLTON  HALL  AND  JAIL,  MONTEREY         '«  "34 

COMMODORE  SLOAT'S  GENERAL  ORDER     .          "  <*    44 

COMANDANTE'S  RESIDENCE,  SAN  FRANCISCO        "  "60 

BAPTISMAL  RECORD  OF  CONCEPCION  ARGUELLO  "  "70 


XI 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC 
AND  RESOURCEFUL 

ONE  of  the  most  important  acts  of 
the  Grand  Parlor  of  the  Native 
Sons  of  the  Golden  West  which 
met  at  Lake  Tahoe  in  1910  was  the  appro- 
priation of  approximately  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  for  the  creation  of  a  traveling  fel- 
lowship in  Pacific  Coast  history  at  the 
State  University.  In  pursuance  of  the  res- 
olution adopted,  a  committee  of  five  was 
appointed  by  the  head  of  the  order  to  con- 
fer with  the  authorities  of  the  university 
in  the  matter  of  this  fellowship.  The  uni- 
versity authorities  were  duly  notified,  both 
of  the  appropriation  for  the  creation  of  the 
fellowship  and  of  the  appointment  of  the 
committee,  and  the  plan  was  put  into 
practical  operation.  In  1911  this  action 

1 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

was  reaffirmed,  and  a  resident  fellowship 
was  also  created,  making  an  appropriation 
of  three  thousand  dollars,  which  has  been 
repeated  each  year  since.  Henry  Morse 
Stephens,  Sather  Professor  of  History,  and 
Herbert  E.  Bolton,  Professor  of  Ameri- 
can History,  and  their  able  assistants 
in  the  history  department  of  the  univer- 
sity have  hailed  with  delight  this  public- 
spirited  movement  on  the  part  of  that 
organization. 

The  object  and  design  of  these  fellow- 
ships is. to  aid  in  the  collection,  preserva- 
tion and  publication  of  information  and 
material  relating  to  the  history  of  the 
Pacific  Coast.  Archives  at  Queretaro  and 
Mexico  City,  in  Mexico,  at  Seville,  Siman- 
cas  and  Madrid,  in  Spain,  and  in  Paris, 
London  and  St.  Petersburg  are  veritable 
treasure  mines  of  information  concerning 
our  early  Pacific  Coast  history,  and  the 
correspondence  of  many  an  old  family  and 

2 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

the  living  memory  of  many  an  individual 
pioneer  can  still  furnish  priceless  records 
of  a  later  period.  Professor  Stephens  has 
elaborated  a  practical  scheme  for  making 
available  all  these  sources  of  historical  in- 
formation through  the  providence  of  these 
fellowships,  as  far  as  they  reach. 

The  perpetuation  of  these  traditions,  the 
preservation  of  this  history,  is  of  the  high- 
est importance.  Five  years  ago,  at  Mon- 
terey, upon  the  celebration  of  the  anniver- 
sary of  Admission  Day,  I  took  occasion  to 
urge  this  view,  and  I  have  not  ceased  to 
urge  it  ever  since.  If  we  take  any  pride  in 
our  State,  if  the  tendrils  of  affection  sink 
into  the  soil  where  our  fathers  wrought, 
and  where  we  ourselves  abide  and  shall 
leave  sons  and  daughters  after  us,  if  we 
know  and  feel  any  appreciation  of  local 
color,  or  take  any  interest  in  the  drama  of 
life  that  is  being  enacted  on  these  Western 
shores,  then  the  preservation  of  every 

3 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

shred  of  it  is  of  vital  importance  to  us  — 
at  least  as  Californians. 

The  early  history  of  this  coast  came  as 
an  offshoot  of  a  civilization  whose  antiqui- 
ty was  already  respectable.  "A  hundred 
years  before  John  Smith  saw  the  spot  on 
which  was  planted  Jamestown,"  says  Hu- 
bert H.  Bancroft,  "thousands  from  Spain 
had  crossed  the  high  seas,  achieving 
mighty  conquests,  seizing  large  portions 
of  the  two  Americas  and  placing  under 
tribute  their  peoples." 

The  past  of  California  possesses  a 
wealth  of  romantic  interest,  a  variety  of 
contrast,  a  novelty  of  resourcefulness  and 
an  intrinsic  importance  that  enthralls  the 
imagination.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  speak 
of  the  hardship  and  high  endeavor  of  the 
splendid  band  of  navigators,  beginning 
with  Cabrillo  in  1542,  who  discovered,  ex- 
plored and  reported  on  its  bays,  outlets, 
rivers  and  coast  line;  whose  exploits  were 

4 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

as  heroic  as  anything  accomplished  by  the 
Norsemen  in  Iceland,  or  the  circumnavi- 
gators of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  I  do  not 
desire  to  picture  the  decades  of  the  pastor- 
al life  of  the  hacienda  and  its  broad  acres, 
that  culminated  in  "  the  splendid  idle  for- 
ties." I  do  not  intend  to  recall  the  miniature 
struggles  of  Church  and  State,  the  many 
political  controversies  of  the  Mexican  re- 
gime, or  the  play  of  plot  and  counterplot 
that  made  up  so  much  of  its  history  "be- 
fore the  Gringo  came."  I  shall  not  try  to 
tell  the  story  of  the  discovery  of  gold  and 
its  world-thrilling  incidents,  nor  of  the 
hardships  and  courage  of  the  emigrant 
trail,  nor  of  the  importance  of  the  mission 
of  the  Pathfinder,  and  the  excitement  of 
the  conquest,  each  in  itself  an  experience 
full  to  the  brim. 

Let  me  rather  call  attention  to  three  in- 
cidents of  our  history,  ignoring  all  the  rest, 
to  enforce  the  point  of  its  uniqueness,  its 

5 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

variety,  its  novelty,  its  importance,  as  en- 
titling it  to  its  proper  proportionate  place 
in  the  history  of  the  nation. 

And  first  of  all,  the  story  of  the  missions. 
The  story  of  the  missions  is  the  history  of 
the  beginning  of  the  colonization  of  Cali- 
fornia. The  Spanish  Government  was  de- 
sirous of  providing  its  ships,  on  the  return 
trip  from  Manila,  with  good  harbors  of 
supply  and  repairs,  and  was  also  desirous 
of  promoting  a  settlement  of  the  north  as 
a  safeguard  against  possible  Russian  ag- 
gression. The  Franciscans,  upon  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Jesuits  in  1767,  had  taken 
charge  of  the  missions,  and,  in  their  zeal  for 
the  conversion  of  the  Indians,  seconded  the 
plans  of  the  government. 

"The  official  purpose  here,  as  in  older 
mission  undertakings,"  says  Dr.  Josiah 
Royce,  "was  a  union  of  physical  and  spir- 
itual conquest,  soldiers  under  a  military 
governor  co-operating  to  this  end  with 

6 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

missionaries  and  mission  establishments. 
The  natives  were  to  be  overcome  by  arms 
in  so  far  as  they  might  resist  the  conquer- 
ors, were  to  be  attracted  to  the  missions  by 
peaceable  measures  in  so  far  as  might  prove 
possible,  were  to  be  instructed  in  the  faith, 
and  were  to  be  kept  for  the  present  under 
the  paternal  rule  of  the  clergy,  until  such 
time  as  they  might  be  ready  for  a  free  life 
as  Christian  subjects.  Meanwhile,  Spanish 
colonists  were  to  be  brought  to  the  new 
land  as  circumstances  might  determine, 
and,  to  these,  allotments  of  land  were  to  be 
made.  No  grants  of  lands,  in  a  legal  sense, 
were  made  or  promised  to  the  mission  es- 
tablishments, whose  position  was  to  be 
merely  that  of  spiritual  institutions,  in- 
trusted with  the  education  of  neophytes, 
and  with  the  care  of  the  property  that 
should  be  given  or  hereafter  produced  for 
the  purpose.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the 
government  tended  to  regard  the  missions 

7 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

as  purely  subsidiary  to  its  purpose,  the  out- 
going missionaries  to  this  strange  land 
were  so  much  the  more  certain  to  be  quite 
uncorrupted  by  worldly  ambitions,  by  a 
hope  of  acquiring  wealth,  or  by  any  inten- 
tion to  found  a  powerful  ecclesiastical  gov- 
ernment in  the  new  colony.  They  went  to 
save  souls,  and  their  motive  was  as  single 
as  it  was  worthy  of  reverence.  In  the 
sequel,  the  more  successful  missions  of 
Upper  California  became,  for  a  time,  very 
wealthy;  but  this  was  only  by  virtue  of  the 
gifts  of  nature  and  of  the  devoted  labors 
of  the  padres." 

Such  a  scheme  of  human  effort  is  so 
unique,  and  so  in  contradiction  to  much 
that  obtains  today,  that  it  seems  like  a  nar- 
rative from  another  world.  Fortunately, 
the  annals  of  these  missions,  which  ulti- 
mately extended  f$om  San  Diego  to  be- 
yond Sonoma  —  stepping-stones  of  civili- 
zation on  this  coast  —  are  complete,  and 

8 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

their  simple  disinterestedness  and  direct- 
ness sound  like  a  tale  from  Arcady.  They 
were  signally  successful  because  those  who 
conducted  them  were  true  to  the  trustee- 
ship of  their  lives.  They  cannot  be  held 
responsible  if  they  were  unable  in  a  single 
generation  to  eradicate  in  the  Indian  the 
ingrained  heredity  of  shiftlessness  of  all 
the  generations  that  had  gone  before.  It 
is  a  source  of  high  satisfaction  that  there 
was  on  the  part  of  the  padres  no  record  of 
overreaching  the  simple  native,  no  failure 
to  respect  what  rights  they  claimed,  no 
carnage  and  bloodshed,  that  have  so  often 
attended  expeditions  sent  nominally  for 
civilization,  but  really  for  conquest.  Here, 
at  least,  was  one  record  of  missionary  en- 
deavor that  came  to  full  fruition  and 
flower,  and  knew  no  fear  or  despair,  until 
it  attracted  the  attention  of  the  ruthless 
rapacity  and  greed  of  the  Mexican  govern- 
mental authority  crouching  behind  the 

9 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

project  of  secularization.  The  enforced 
withdrawal  of  the  paternal  hand  before  the 
Indian  had  learned  to  stand  and  walk 
alone,  coupled  in  some  sections  with  the 
dread  scourge  of  pestilential  epidemic, 
wrought  dispersion,  decimation  and  de- 
struction. If,  however,  the  teeming  acres 
are  now  otherwise  tilled,  and  if  the  herds 
of  cattle  have  passed  away  and  the  com- 
munal life  is  gone  forever,  the  record  of 
what  was  accomplished  in  those  pastoral 
days  has  linked  the  name  of  California 
with  a  new  and  imperishable  architecture, 
and  has  immortalized  the  name  of  Junip- 
ero  Serra.*  The  pathetic  ruin  at  Carmel  is 
a  shattered  monument  above  a  grave  that 
will  become  a  world's  shrine  of  pilgrimage 
in  honor  of  one  of  humanity's  heroes.  The 
patient  soul  that  here  laid  down  its  bur- 
den will  not  be  forgotten.  The  memory  of 


*  Pronounced  Hoo-neep-ero,  with  the  accent  on  the  sec- 
ond syllable. 

10 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

the  brave  heart  that  was  here  consumed 
with  love  for  mankind  will  live  through 
the  ages.  And,  in  a  sense,  the  work  of 
these  missions  is  not  dead  —  their  very 
ruins  still  preach  the  lesson  of  service  and 
of  sacrifice.  As  the  fishermen  off  the  coast 
of  Brittany  tell  the  legend  that  at  the  even- 
ing hour,  as  their  boats  pass  over  the  van- 
ished Atlantis,  they  can  still  hear  the 
sounds  of  its  activity  at  the  bottom  of  the 
sea,  so  every  Californian,  as  he  turns  the 
pages  of  the  early  history  of  his  State, 
feels  at  times  that  he  can  hear  the  echo  of 
the  Angelus  bells  of  the  missions,  and 
amid  the  din  of  the  money-madness  of 
these  latter  days,  can  find  a  response  in 
"the  better  angels  of  his  nature. " 

In  swift  contrast  to  this  idyllic  scene, 
which  is  shared  with  us  by  few  other  sec- 
tions of  this  country,  stands  the  history  of 
a  period  where  for  nearly  two  years  this 
State  was  without  authority  of- American 

11 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

civil  law,  and  where,  in  practice,  the  only 
authority  was  such  as  sprang  from  the 
instinct  of  self-preservation.  No  more  in- 
teresting phase  of  history  in  America  can 
be  presented  than  that  which  arose  in  Cali- 
fornia immediately  after  the  discovery  of 
gold,  with  reference  to  titles  upon  the  pub- 
lic domain.  James  W.  Marshall  made  the 
discovery  of  gold  in  the  race  of  a  small 
mill  at  Coloma,  in  the  latter  part  of  Jan- 
uary, 1848.  Thereupon  took  place  an  in- 
cident of  history  which  demonstrated  that 
Jason  and  his  companions  were  not  the 
only  Argonauts  who  ever  made  a  voyage 
to  unknown  shores  in  search  of  a  golden 
fleece.  The  first  news  of  the  discovery  al- 
most depopulated  the  towns  and  ranches 
of  California,  and  even  affected  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  small  army  of  occupation. 
The  first  winter  brought  thousands  of  Ore- 
gonians,  Mexicans  and  Chilenos.  The  ex- 
traordinary reports  that  reached  the  East 

12 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

were  at  first  disbelieved,  but  when  the  pri- 
vate letters  of  army  officers  and  men  in 
authority  were  published,  an  indescribable 
gold  fever  took  possession  of  the  nation 
east  of  the  Alleghanies.  All  the  energetic 
and  daring,  all  the  physically  sound  of  all 
ages,  seemed  bent  on  reaching  the  new  El 
Dorado.  "The  old  Gothic  instinct  of  in- 
vasion seemed  to  survive  and  thrill  in  the 
fiber  of  our  people,"  and  the  camps  and 
gulches  and  mines  of  California  witnessed 
a  social  and  political  phenomenon  unique 
in  the  history  of  the  world  —  the  spirit  and 
romance  of  which  have  been  immortalized 
in  the  pages  of  Bret  Harte. 

Before  1850  the  population  of  California 
had  risen  from  15,000,  as  it  was  in  1847,*  to 


*  The  best  pen-picture  of  San  Francisco  just  before  the 
discovery  of  gold  that  I  know  of  is  that  given  by  one  who 
was  an  eye-witness:  "At  that  time  (July,  1847),  what  is 
now  called  San  Francisco  was  called  Yerba  Buena.  A 
naval  officer,  Lieutenant  Washington  A.  Bartlett,  its  first 
Alcalde,  had  caused  it  to  be  surveyed  and  laid  out  into 
blocks  and  lots,  which  were  being  sold  at  sixteen  dollars  a 

13 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

100,000,  and  the  average  weekly  increase 
for  six  weeks  thereafter  was  50,000.  The 
novelty  of  this  situation  produced  in  many 
minds  the  most  marvelous  development. 
"Every  glance  westward  was  met  by  a  new 
ray  of  intelligence;  every  drawn  breath  of 

lot  of  fifty  varas  square;  the  understanding  being  that  no 
single  person  could  purchase  of  the  Alcalde  more  than  one 
in-lot  of  fifty  varas,  and  one  out-lot  of  a  hundred  varas. 
Folsom,  however,  got  his  clerks,  orderlies,  etc.,  to  buy  lots, 
and  they,  for  a  small  consideration,  conveyed  them  to  him, 
so  that  he  was  nominally  the  owner  of  a  good  many  lots. 
Lieutenant  Halleck  had  bought  one  of  each  kind,  and  so  had 
Warner.  Many  naval  officers  had  also  invested,  and  Cap- 
tain Folsom  advised  me  to  buy  some,  but  I  felt  actually 
insulted  that  he  should  think  me  such  a  fool  as  to  pay 
money  for  property  in  such  a  horrid  place  as  Yerba  Buena, 
especially  in  his  quarter  of  the  city,  then  called  Happy 
Valley.  At  that  day  Montgomery  Street  was,  as  now,  the 
business  street,  extending  from  Jackson  to  Sacramento,  the 
water  of  the  bay  leaving  barely  room  for  a  few  houses  on 
its  east  side,  and  the  public  warehouses  were  on  a  sandy 
beach  about  where  the  Bank  of  California  now  stands,  viz., 
near  the  intersection  of  Sansome  and  California  streets. 

The  population  was  estimated  at  about  four 

hundred,  of  whom  Kanakas  (natives  of  the  Sandwich 
Islands)  formed  the  bulk." — Personal  Memoirs  of  GENERAL 
W.  T.  SHERMAN  (Charles  L.  Webster  &  Co.,  New  York, 
1891),  p.  61. 

14 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

western  air  brought  inspiration;  every  step 
taken  was  over  an  unknown^  field;  every 
experiment,  every  thought,  every  aspira- 
tion and  act  were  original  and  individual." 
At  the  time  of  Marshall's  discovery,  the 
United  States  was  still  at  war  with  Mexi- 
co, its  sovereignty  over  the  soil  of  Cali- 
fornia not  being  recognized  by  the  latter. 
The  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  was  not 
signed  until  February  2d,  and  the  ratified 
copies  thereof  not  exchanged  at  Queretaro 
till  May  30,  1848.  On  the  12th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1848,  ten  days  after  the  signing  of  the 
treaty  of  peace  and  about  three  weeks 
after  the  discovery  of  gold  at  Coloma, 
Colonel  Mason  did  the  pioneers  a  signal 
service  by  issuing,  as  Governor,  the  proc- 
lamation concerning  the  mines,  which  at 
the  time  was  taken  as  a  finality  and  cer- 
tainty as  to  the  status  of  mining  titles  in 
their  international  aspect.  "  From  and  after 
this  date,"  the  proclamation  read,  "the 

15 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

Mexican  laws  and  customs  now  prevailing 
in  California  relative  to  the  denouncement 
of  mines  are  hereby  abolished."  Although, 
as  the  law  was  fourteen  years  afterwards 
expounded  by  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court,  the  act  was  unnecessary  as  a  pre- 
cautionary measure,*  still  the  practical  re- 
sult of  the  timeliness  of  the  proclamation 
was  to  prevent  attempts  to  found  private 
titles  to  the  new  discovery  of  gold  on  any 
customs  or  laws  of  Mexico. 

Meantime,  California  was  governed  by 
military  authority, — was  treated  as  if  it 
were  merely  a  military  outpost,  away  out 
somewhere  west  of  the  "  Great  American 
Desert."  Except  an  act  to  provide  for 
the  deliveries  and  taking  of  mails  at  cer- 
tain points  on  the  coast,  and  a  resolution 
authorizing  the  furnishing  of  arms  and 
ammunition  to  certain  immigrants,  no 

*United  States  vs.  Castellero,  2  Black  (67  U.  S.),  17-371. 

16 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

Federal  act  was  passed  with  reference  to 
California  in  any  relation;  in  no  act  of 
Congress  was  California  even  mentioned 
after  its  annexation,  until  the  act  of  March 
3,  1849,  extending  the  revenue  laws  of  the 
United  States  "over  the  territory  and  wa- 
ters of  Upper  California,  and  to  create  cer- 
tain collection  districts  therein/'  This  act 
of  March  3,  1849,  not  only  did  not  extend 
the  general  laws  of  the  United  States  over 
California,  but  did  not  even  create  a  local 
tribunal  for  its  enforcement,  providing 
that  the  District  Court  of  Louisiana  and 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Oregon  should  be 
courts  of  original  jurisdiction  to  take  cog- 
nizance of  all  violations  of  its  provisions. 
JNot  even  the  act  of  September  9,  1850, 
admitting  California  into  the  Union,  ex- 
tended the  general  laws  of  the  United 
States  over  the  State  by  express  provision. 
Not  until  the  act  of  September  26,  1850, 
establishing  a  District  Court  in  the  State, 

17 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

was  it  enacted  by  Congress  "  that  all  the 
laws  of  the  United  States  which  are  not 
locally  inapplicable  shall  have  the  same 
force  and  effect  within  the  said  State  of 
California  as  elsewhere  in  the  United 
States."  * 

Though  no  general  Federal  laws  were 
extended  by  Congress  over  the  later  ac- 
quisitions from  Mexico  for  more  than  two 


*A  vivid  and  most  interesting  account  of  General  Sut- 
ter's  helpless  attempt  to  obtain  from  the  military  Governor 
a  recognition  of  his  title  to  the  land  upon  which  his  tail- 
race  was  situated  is  given  by  General  W.  T.  Sherman: 
"I  remember  one  day  in  the  spring  of  1848,  that  two  men, 
Americans,  came  into  the  office  and  inquired  for  the  Gov- 
ernor. I  asked  their  business,  and  one  answered  that  they 
had  just  come  down  from  General  Sutter  on  special  bus- 
iness, and  wanted  to  see  Governor  Mason  in  person.  I  took 
them  in  to  the  Colonel,  and  left  them  together.  After  some 
time  the  Colonel  came  to  his  door  and  called  to  me.  I  went 
in,  and  my  attention  was  directed  to  a  series  of  papers  un- 
folded on  his  table,  in  which  lay  about  half  an  ounce  of 

placer  gold Colonel  Mason  then  handed  me  a 

letter  from  Captain  Sutter,  addressed  to  him,  stating  that  he 
(Sutter)  was  engaged  in  erecting  a  sawmill  at  Coloma, 
about  forty  miles  up  the  American  Fork,  above  his  fort  at 
New  Helvetia,  for  the  general  benefit  of  the  settlers  in  that 
vicinity;  that  he  had  incurred  considerable  expense,  and 

18 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

years  after  the  end  of  the  war,  the  para- 
mount title  to  the  public  lands  had  vested 
in  the  Federal  Government  by  virtue  of  the 
provisions  of  the  treaty  of  peace;  the  pub- 
lic land  itself  had  become  part  of  the  public 
domain  of  the  United  States.  The  army  of 
occupation,  however,  offered  no  opposi- 
tion to  the  invading  army  of  prospectors. 
The  miners  were,  in  1849,  twenty  years 
ahead  of  the  railroad  and  the  electric  tele- 
graph. The  telephone  had  not  yet  been 


wanted  a  'preemption'  to  the  quarter  section  of  land  on  which 
the  mill  was  located,  embracing  the  tail-race  in  which  this 
particular  gold  had  been  found.  Mason  instructed  me  to 
prepare  a  letter,  reciting  that  California  was  yet  a  Mexican 
province,  simply  held  by  us  as  a  conquest;  that  no  laws  of 
the  United  States  yet  applied  to  it,  much  less  the  land  laws 
or  preemption  laws,  which  could  only  apply  after  a  public 
survey.  Therefore  it  was  impossible  for  the  Governor  to 
promise  him  (Sutter)  a  title  to  the  land;  yet,  as  there  were 
no  settlements  within  forty  miles,  he  was  not  likely  to  be 
disturbed  by  trespassers.  Colonel  Mason  signed  the  letter, 
handed  it  to  one  of  the  gentlemen  who  had  brought  the 

sample  of  gold,  and  they  departed That  gold 

was  the  first  discovered  in  the  Sierra  Nevada,  which  soon 
revolutionized  the  whole  country,  and  actually  moved  the 
whole  civilized  world." — Personal  Memoirs,  -p.  68. 

19 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

invented.  In  the  parlance  of  the  times,  the 
prospectors  "had  the  drop"  on  the  army. 
In  Colonel  Mason's  unique  report  of  the 
situation  that  confronted  him,  discretion 
waited  upon  valor.  "The  entire  gold  dis- 
trict," he  wrote  to  the  Government  at 
Washington,  "with  few  exceptions  of 
grants  made  some  years  ago  by  the  Mexi- 
can authorities,  is  on  land  belonging  to 
the  United  States.  It  was  a  matter  of  seri- 
ous reflection  with  me  how  I  could  secure 
to  the  Government  certain  rents  or  fees  for 
the  privilege  of  procuring  this  gold;  but 
upon  considering  the  large  extent  of  the 
country,  the  character  of  the  people  engaged, 
and  the  small  scattered  force  at  my  command, 
I  am  resolved  not  to  interfere,  but  permit 
all  to  work  freely."  It  is  not  recorded 
whether  the  resolute  colonel  was  conscious 
of  the  humor  of  his  resolution.  This  early 
suggestion  of  conservation  was,  under  the 
circumstances,  manifestly  academic. 

20 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  in  commenting  on  the  singular  sit- 
uation in  which  Colonel  Mason  found  him- 
self, clearly  and  forcefully  states  his  pre- 
dicament. "His  position"  says  that  Court, 
"was  unlike  anything  that  had  preceded  it  in 
the  history  of  our  country.  ...  It  was  not 
without  its  difficulties,  both  as  regards  the 
principle  upon  which  he  should  act,  and 
the  actual  state  of  affairs  in  California. 
He  knew  that  the  Mexican  inhabitants  of 
it  had  been  remitted  by  the  treaty  of  peace 
to  those  municipal  laws  and  usages  which 
prevailed  among  them  before  the  terri- 
tory had  been  ceded  to  the  United  States, 
but  that  a  state  of  things  and  population 
had  grown  up  during  the  war,  and  after 
the  treaty  of  peace,  which  made  some 
other  authority  necessary  to  maintain  the 
rights  of  the  ceded  inhabitants  and  of  im- 
migrants, from  misrule  and  violence.  He 
may  not  have  comprehended  fully  the  prin- 

21 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

ciple  applicable  to  what  he  might  rightly 
do  in  such  a  case,  but  he  felt  rightly  and 
acted  accordingly.  He  determined,  in  the 
absence  of  all  instruction,  to  maintain  the 
existing  government.  The  territory  had 
been  ceded  as  a  conquest,  and  was  to  be 
preserved  and  governed  as  such  until  the 
sovereignty  to  which  it  had  passed  had 
legislated  for  it.  That  sovereignty  was  the 
United  States,  under  the  Constitution, 
by  which  power  had  been  given  to  Con- 
gress to  dispose  of  and  make  all  needful 
rules  and  regulations  respecting  the  terri- 
tory or  other  property  belonging  to  the 
United  States,  with  the  power  also  to  ad- 
mit new  states  into  this  Union,  with  only 
such  limitations  as  are  expressed  in  the 
section  in  which  this  power  is  given.  The 
government,  of  which  Colonel  Mason  was 
the  executive,  had  its  origin  in  the  lawful 
exercise  of  a  belligerent  right  over  a  con- 
quered territory.  It  had  been  instituted 

22 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

during  the  war  by  the  command  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States.  It  was 
the  government  when  the  territory  was 
ceded  as  a  conquest,  and  it  did  not  cease, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  or  as  a  necessary 
consequence  of  the  restoration  of  peace. 
The  President  might  have  dissolved  it  by 
withdrawing  the  army  and  navy  officers 
who  administered  it,  but  he  did  not  do  so. 
Congress  could  have  put  an  end  to  it,  but 
that  was  not  done.  The  right  inference 
from  the  inaction  of  both  is,  that  it  was 
meant  to  be  continued  until  it  had  been 
legislatively  changed.  No  presumption  of 
a  contrary  intention  can  be  made.  What- 
ever may  have  been  the  causes  of  delay, 
it  must  be  presumed  that  the  delay  was 
consistent  with  the  true  policy  of  the 
Government."  * 

This  guess,  being  the  last  guess,  must 
now  be  taken  as  authoritative. 


*Cross  vs.  Harrison,  16  Howard  (57  U.  S.),  164,  192. 

23 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

The  prospectors  and  miners  were,  then, 
in  the  start,  simply  trespassers  upon  the 
public  lands  as  against  the  Government  of 
the  United  States,  with  no  laws  to  guide, 
restrain  or  protect  them,  and  with  nothing 
to  fear  from  the  military  authorities.  They 
were  equal  to  the  occasion.  The  instinct 
of  organization  was  a  part  of  their  hered- 
ity. Professor  Macy,  in  a  treatise  issued 
by  Johns  Hopkins  University,  once  wrote : 
"  It  has  been  said  that  if  three  Americans 
meet  to  talk  over  an  item  of  business,  the 
first  thing  they  do  is  to  organize/7 

"Finding  themselves  far  from  the  legal 
traditions  and  restraints  of  the  settled 
East/'  said  the  report  of  the  Public  Land 
Commission  of  1880,  "in  a  pathless  wilder- 
ness, under  the  feverish  excitement  of  an 
industry  as  swift  and  full  of  chance  as  the 
throwing  of  dice,  the  adventurers  of  1849 
spontaneously  instituted  neighborhood  or 
district  codes  of  regulation,  which  were 

24 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

simply  meant  to  define  and  protect  a  brief 
possessory  ownership.  The  ravines  and 
river  bars  which  held  the  placer  gold  were 
valueless  for  settlement  or  home-making, 
but  were  splendid  stakes  to  hold  for  a  few 
short  seasons  and  gamble  with  nature  for 
wealth  or  ruin. 

"In  the  absence  of  State  and  Federal 
laws  competent  to  meet  the  novel  industry, 
and  with  the  inbred  respect  for  equitable 
adjustments  of  rights  between  man  and 
man,  the  miners  sought  only  to  secure 
equitable  rights  and  protection  from  rob- 
bery by  a  simple  agreement  as  to  the  maxi- 
mum size  of  a  surface  claim,  trusting,  with 
a  well-founded  confidence,  that  no  machin- 
ery was  necessary  to  enforce  their  regu- 
lations other  than  the  swift,  rough  blows 
of  public  opinion.  The  gold-seekers  were 
not  long  in  realizing  that  the  source  of  the 
dust  which  had  worked  its  way  into  the 
sands  and  bars,  and  distributed  its  pre- 
25 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

cious  particles  over  the  bedrocks  of  rivers, 
was  derived  from  solid  quartz  veins,  which 
were  thin  sheets  of  mineral  material  in- 
closed in  the  foundation  rocks  of  the  coun- 
try. Still  in  advance  of  any  enactments  by 
legislature  or  Congress,  the  common  sense 
of  the  miners,  which  had  proved  strong 
enough  to  govern  with  wisdom  the  owner- 
ship of  placer  mines,  rose  to  meet  the  ques- 
tion of  lode  claims  and  sheet-like  veins  of 
quartz,  and  provided  that  a  claim  should 
consist  of  a  certain  horizontal  block  of  the 
vein,  however  it  might  run,  but  extending 
indefinitely  downward,  with  a  strip  of  sur- 
face on,  or  embracing  the  vein's  outcrop, 
for  the  placing  of  necessary  machinery 
and  buildings.  Under  this  theory,  the  lode 
was  the  property,  and  the  surface  became 
a  mere  easement. 

"This  early  California  theory  of  a  min- 
ing claim,  consisting  of  a  certain  number 
of  running  feet  of  vein,  with  a  strip  of  land 

26 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

covering  the  surface  length  of  the  claim, 
is  the  obvious  foundation  for  the  Federal 
legislation  and  present  system  of  public 
disposition  and  private  ownership  of  the 
mineral  lands  west  of  the  Missouri  River. 
Contrasted  with  this  is  the  mode  of  dis- 
position of  mineral-bearing  lands  east  of 
the  Missouri  River,  where  the  common 
law  has  been  the  rule,  and  where  the  sur- 
face tract  has  always  carried  with  it  alh 
minerals  vertically  below  it. 

"The  great  coal,  copper,  lead  and  zinc 
wealth  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  has 
all  passed  with  the  surface  titles,  and  there 
can  be  little  doubt  if  California  had  been 
contiguous  to  the  eastern  metallic  regions, 
and  its  mineral  development  progressed 
naturally  with  the  advantage  of  home- 
making  settlements,  the  power  of  common- 
law  precedent  would  have  governed  its 
whole  mining  history.  But  California  was 
one  of  these  extraordinary  historic  excep- 

27 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

tions  that  defy  precedent  and  create  orig- 
inal modes  of  life  and  law.  And  since  the 
developers  of  the  great  precious  metal 
mining  of  the  Far  West  have,  for  the  most 
part,  swarmed  out  of  the  California  hive, 
California  ideas  have  not  only  been  every- 
where dominant  over  the  field  of  the  indus- 
try, but  have  stemmed  the  tide  of  Federal 
land  policy,  and  given  us  a  statute-book 
with  English  common  law  in  force  over 
half  the  land  and  California  common  law 
ruling  in  the  other." 

I  have  spoken  of  these  two  incidents, 
the  one  of  the  peaceable  civilization  of  the 
missions,  and  the  other  of  the  strenuous 
life  issuing  in  the  adoption  of  the  mining 
law,  as  illustrative  incidents  of  the  variety 
of  California  history.  Let  me  briefly  speak 
of  a  third  one,  California's  method  of  get- 
ting into  the  Union.  But  two  other  states 
at  the  present  time  celebrate  the  anniver- 
sary of  their  admission  into  the  Union; 

28 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

the  reason  for  California's  celebration  of 
that  anniversary  is  well  founded.  The  delay 
incident  to  the  admission  of  California  into 
the  Union  as  a  State  was  precipitated  by 
the  tense  struggle  then  raging  in  Congress 
between  the  North  and  the  South.  The 
admission  of  Wisconsin  had  made  a  tie, 
fifteen  free  states  and  fifteen  slave  states. 
The  destiny  of  the  nation  hung  upon  the 
result  of  that  issue,  and  when  California 
finally  entered  the  Union,  it  came  in  as  the 
sixteenth  free  State,  forever  destroyed  the 
equilibrium  between  the  North  and  the 
South,  and  made  the  Civil  War  practically 
inevitable.  The  debate  was  a  battle  of 
giants.  Webster,  Clay  and  Calhoun  all 
took  part  in  it.  Calhoun  had  arisen  from 
his  death-bed  to  fight  the  admission  of 
California,  and,  upon  reaching  his  seat  in 
the  Senate,  found  himself  so  overcome 
with  weakness  and  pain  that  he  had  Ma- 
son of  Virginia  read  the  speech  he  had 

29 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

prepared  in  writing.  Webster  atoned  for 
his  hostility  to  the  Pacific  Coast  before  the 
Mexican  War  by  answering  Calhoun.  "I 
do  not  hesitate  to  avow  in  the  presence  of 
the  living  God  that  if  you  seek  to  drive  us 
from  California  ...  I  am  for  disunion/' 
declared  Robert  Toombs,  of  Georgia,  to 
an  applauding  House.  "The  unity  of  our 
empire  hangs  upon  the  decision  of  this 
day,"  answered  Seward  in  the  Senate. 
National  history  was  being  made  with  a 
vengeance,  and  California  was  the  theme. 
The  contest  was  an  inspiring  one,  and  a 
reading  of  the  Congressional  Record  cov- 
ering the  period  makes  a  Californian's 
blood  tingle  with  the  intensity  of  it  all.* 

*"In  1850  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  passed 
what  is  called  a  series  of  compromise  measures.  Among 
them  was  a  fugitive  slave  law,  the  indemnity  to  Texas, 
the  creation  of  territories  in  Utah  and  New  Mexico,  the 
admission  of  California,  and  the  change  in  the  Texas 
boundary.  Four  of  them  had  direct  relation  to  the  ques- 
tion of  slavery,  and  one  was  the  admission  of  this  State. 
Being  in  Congress,  as  a  member  of  the  House,  at  that 
time,  I  know  well  what  you  remember.  The  admission 

30 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

The  struggle  had  been  so  prolonged, 
however,  that  the  people  upon  this  coast, 
far  removed  from  the  scene  of  it,  and  feel- 
ing more  than  all  else  that  they  were  en- 
titled to  be  protected  by  a  system  of  laws, 
had  grown  impatient.  They  had  finally 
proceeded  in  a  characteristically  Califor- 
nian  way.  They  had  met  in  legislative  as- 
sembly and  proclaimed:  "It  is  the  duty  of 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  to 
give  us  laws;  and  when  that  duty  is  not 
performed,  one  of  the  clearest  rights  we 
have  left  is  to  govern  ourselves." 

The  first  provisional  government  meet- 
ing was  held  in  the  pueblo  of  San  Jose,  De- 
cember 11,  1848,  and  unanimously  recom- 
mended that  a  general  convention  be  held 
at  the  pueblo  of  San  Jose  on  the  second 


of  California  as  a  State  was  delayed  for  some  nine  or 
ten  months,  because  the  leaders  of  the  Pro-Slavery 
Party  were  determined  to  secure  their  own  way  on  all 
the  other  measures  before  California  should  be  admit- 
ted/'—E.  D.  BAKER,  Forest  Hill  speech,  Aug. '19,  1859. 

31 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

Monday  of  January  following.  At  San 
Francisco  a  similar  provisional  meeting 
was  held,  though  the  date  of  the  proposed 
convention  was  fixed  for  the  first  Monday 
in  March,  1849,  and  afterward  changed 
to  the  first  Monday  in  August. 

The  various  assemblies  which  had 
placed  other  conditions  and  fixed  other 
dates  and  places  for  holding  the  same 
gave  way,  and  a  general  election  was 
finally  held  under  the  provisions  of  a  proc- 
lamation issued  by  General  Bennet  Riley, 
the  United  States  General  commanding,  a 
proclamation  for  the  issuance  of  which 
there  was  no  legislative  warrant  whatever. 
While  the  Legislative  Assembly  of  San 
Francisco  recognized  his  military  author- 
ity, in  which  capacity  he  was  not  formi- 
dable, it  did  not  recognize  his  civil  power. 
General  Riley,  however,  with  that  rare  di- 
plomacy which  seems  to  have  attached  to 
all  Federal  military  people  when  acting  on 

32 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

the  Pacific  Coast,  realizing  that  any  or- 
ganized government  that  proceeded'  from 
an  orderly  concourse  of  the  people  was 
preferable  to  the  exasperating  condition  in 
which  the  community  was  left  to  face  its 
increasing  problem  under  Congressional 
inaction,  himself  issued  thfce  proclamation 
for  a  general  convention,  which  is  itself 
a  gem.  The  delegates  met  in  Monterey,  at 
Colton  Hall,  on  the  1st  of  September,  and 
organized  on  the  3d  of  September,  1849. 

The  convention  was  one  of  the  keenest 
and  most  intelligent  that  ever  assembled 
for  the  fulfillment  of  a  legislative  responsi- 
bility. Six  of  the  delegates  had  resided  in 
California  less  than  six  months,  while  only 
twenty-one,  exclusive  of  the  seven  native 
Californians,  had  resided  here  for  more 
than  three  years.  The  average  age  of  all 
the  delegates  was  36  years.  The  debates 
of  that  convention  should  be  familiar  to 
every  citizen  of  this  State.  No  Californian 

33 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

should  be  unfamiliar  with  the  great  de- 
bate on  what  was  to  constitute  the  east- 
ern boundary  of  the  State  of  California,  a 
debate  accompanied  by  an  intensity  of  feel- 
ing which  in  the  end  almost  wrecked  the 
convention.  The  dramatic  scenes  wrought 
by  the  patriotism  that  saved  the  wrecking 
of  the  convention  stand  out  in  bold  relief. 
The  constitution  adopted  by  this  conven- 
tion was  ratified  November  13,  1849,  and, 
at  the  same  election,  an  entire  State  and 
legislative  ticket,  with  two  representatives 
in  Congress,  was  chosen.  The  senators  and 
assemblymen  elect  met  in  San  Jose  on  De- 
cember 15,  1849.  On  December  20,  1849, 
the  State  government  of  California  was  es- 
tablished and  Governor  Peter  H.  Burnett 
was  inaugurated  as  the  first  Governor  of 
the  State  of  California,  and  soon  there- 
after William  M.  Gwin  and  John  C.  Fre- 
mont were  elected  the  first  United  States 
Senators  of  the  State  of  California.  Notwith- 

34 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

standing  the  fact  that  there  had  never  been 
any  territorial  form  of  government,  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  California  had 
not  yet  been  admitted  into  the  Union, 
these  men  were  all  elected  as  members  of 
the  State  government,  and  the  United  States 
Senators  and  members  of  Congress  started 
for  Washington  to  help  get  the  State  ad- 
mitted. 

Immediately  upon  the  inauguration  of 
Governor  Burnett,  General  Riley  issued 
this  remarkable  proclamation: 

"To  the  People  of  California:  A  new 
executive  having  been  elected  and  installed 
into  office,  in  accordance  with  the  provi- 
sions of  the  Constitution  of  the  State,  the 
undersigned  hereby  resigns  his  powers  as 
Governor  of  California.  In  thus  dissolving 
his  official  connection  with  the  people  of 
this  country  he  would  tender  to  them  his 
heart-felt  thanks  for  their  many  kind  at- 
tentions and  for  the  uniform  'support 

35 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

which  they  have  given  to  the  measures  of 
his  administration.  The  principal  object 
of  all  his  wishes  is  now  accomplished  — 
the  people  have  a  government  of  their  own 
choice,  and  one  which,  under  the  favor  of 
Divine  Providence,  will  secure  their  own 
prosperity  and  happiness  and  the  perma- 
nent welfare  of  the  new  State!' 

No  matter  what  the  legal  objections  to 
this  course  might  be,  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  Congress  had  as  yet  passed  no 
bill  for  the  admission  of  California  as  a 
State  into  the  Union,  and  might  never  pass 
one,  California  broke  all  precedents  by  de- 
claring itself  a  State,  and  a  free  State  at 
that,  and  sent  its  representatives  to  Wash- 
ington to  hurry  up  the  passage  of  the  bill 
which  should  admit  it  into  the  Union. 

The  brilliant  audacity  of  California's 
method  of  admission  into  the  Union  stands 
without  parallel  in  the  history  of  the  na- 
tion. Outside  of  the  original  thirteen  colo- 

36 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

nies,  she  was  the  only  State  carved  out  of 
the  national  domain  which  was  admitted 
into  the  Union  without  a  previous  enabling 
act  or  territorial  apprenticeship.  What  was 
called  the  State  of  Deseret  tried  it  and 
failed,  and  the  annexation  of  Texas  was 
the  annexation  of  a  foreign  republic.  The 
so-called  State  of  Transylvania  and  State 
of  Franklin  had  been  attempted  secessions 
of  western  counties  of  the  original  states 
of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  respec- 
tively, and  their  abortive  attempts  at  ad- 
mission addressed  to  the  Continental  Con- 
gress, and  not  to  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States.  With  full  right,  then,  did 
California,  by  express  resolution  spreading 
the  explanation  upon  the  minutes  of  her 
constitutional  convention,*  avowedly  place 
upon  her  great  seal  her  Minerva  —  her 


*J.  Ross  Browne :  Debates  in  the  Convention  of  Cali- 
fornia on  the  Formation  of  the  Constitution  in  1849,  pp. 
304,  322,  323. 


37 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

>JSS 

"  robed  goddess-in-arms" — not  as  the  god- 
dess of  wisdom,  not  as  the  goddess  of  war, 
but  to  signify  that  as  Minerva  was  not 
born,  but  sprang  full-armed  from  the  brain 
of  Jupiter,  so  California,  without  territo- 
rial childhood,  sprang  full-grown  into  the 
sisterhood  of  states. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  California 
was  not  admitted  into  the  Union  till  Sep- 
tember 9,  1850,  and  yet  that  the  first  ses- 
sion of  its  State  Legislature  had  met,  legis- 
lated, and  adjourned  by  April  22,  1850,  some 
appreciation  may  be  had  of  the  speed  limit 
—  if  there  was  a  limit.  The  record  of  the 
naive  self-sufficiency  of  that  Legislature  is 
little  short  of  amazing. 

On  February  9,  1850,  seven  months  be- 
fore the  admission  of  the  State,  it  coolly 
passed  the  following  resolution:  "That 
the  Governor  be,  and  he  is  hereby  au- 
thorized and  requested,  to  cause  to  be 
procured,  and  prepared  in  the  manner 

38 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

prescribed  by  the  Washington  Monument 
Association,  a  block  of  California  marble, 
cinnabar,  gold  quartz  or  granite  of  suitable 
dimensions,  with  the  word  'California' 
chiseled  on  its  face,  and  that  he  cause  the 
same  to  be  forwarded  to  the  managers  of 
the  Washington  Monument  Association, 
in  the  city  of  Washington,  District  of 
Columbia,  to  constitute  a  portion  of  the 
monument  now  being  erected  in  that  city 
to  the  memory  of  George  Washington." 
California  did  not  intend  to  be  absent  from 
any  feast,  or  left  out  of  any  procession  — 
not  if  she  knew  it.  Looking  back  now,  our 
belief  is  that  the  only  reason  she  required 
the  word  "  California,"  instead  of  the 
words  "  State  of  California,"  to  be  chiseled 
on  the  stone  was  that  the  rules  of  the 
Monument  Association  probably  prohib- 
ited any  State  from  chiseling  on  the  stone 
contributed  by  it  any  words  except  the 
mere  name  of  the  State  itself..  And  the 

39 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

resolution  was  obeyed — the  stone  was  cut 
from  a  marble-bed  on  a  ranch  just  outside 
Placerville,  and  is  now  in  the  monument! 

On  April  13,  1850,  nearly  five  months 
before  California  was  admitted  into  the 
Union,  that  Legislature  gaily  passed  an 
act  consisting  of  this  provision:  "The  com- 
mon law  of  England,  so  far  as  it  is  not 
repugnant  to  or  inconsistent  with  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  or  the  Con- 
stitution or  laws  of  the  State  of  California, 
shall  be  the  rule  of  the  decision  in  all  the 
courts  of  the  State." 

Among  other  things,  three  joint  resolu- 
tions were  passed,  one  demanding  of  the 
Federal  Government  not  only  a  change  in 
the  manner  of  transporting  the  mails,  but 
also  in  the  manner  of  their  distribution 
at  San  Francisco,  a  second  urging  upon 
Congress  the  importance  of  authorizing,  as 
soon  as  practicable,  the  construction  of  a 
national  railroad  from  the  Pacific  Ocean  to  the 

40 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

Mississippi  River  —  not  from  the  Mississippi 
River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  but  from  the 
Pacific  Ocean  to  the  Mississippi  River  — 
and  a  third  urging  appropriate  grants  of 
land  by  the  General  Government  to  each 
commissioned  officer  of  the  Army  of  the 
United  States  who  had  faithfully  and  hon- 
orably served  out  a  complete  term  of  ser- 
vice in  the  war  with  Mexico.  Each  of  the 
last  two  resolutions,  with  grim  determina- 
tion, and  without  a  suspicion  of  humor, 
contained  this  further  resolution:  "  That 
His  Excellency,  the  Governor,  be  re- 
quested to  forward  to  each  of  our  Senators 
and  Representatives  in  Congress,  a  certi- 
fied copy  of  this  joint  resolution." 

These  resolutions  were  passed  five 
months  before  the  State  was  admitted  into 
the  Union.  If  the  Senators  and  Represen- 
tatives were  not  yet  actually  "in  Congress" 
— well,  they  were  at  least  in  Washington — 
and  busy.  The  desire  to  be  admitted  into 

41 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  ANJJ  RESOURCEFUL 

the  Union  had  developed  into  a  yearning 
to  be  considered  a  part  of  the  Union,  had 
ripened  into  the  conviction  that  the  State 
was,  potentially  at  least,  actually  a  part  of 
the  Union,  a  yearning  and  a  conviction 
that  became  almost  pathetic  in  their  inten- 
sity. The  Legislature  adjourned,  and  for 
nearly  five  months  the  population  of  San 
Francisco  assembled  on  the  Plaza  on  the  ar- 
rival of  every  Panama  steamer,  waiting  — 
waiting — waiting  for  the  answer,  which, 
when  it  did  come  in  the  following  October, 
was  celebrated  with  an  abandon  of  joy 
that  has  never  been  equaled  on  any  suc- 
ceeding Ninth  of  September.  I/ 

It  is  indefensible  that  in  the  face  of  in- 
cidents of  our  history  such  as  these  Cal- 
ifornians  should  be  ignorant  of  the  lives 
and  experiences  of  those  who  preceded 
them  on  this  coast.  The  history  of  their 
experiences  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  the 
nation,  and  the  record  of  the  achievement 

42 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

of  the  empire-builders  of  this  coast  is  one 
that  inspires  civic  pride  and  a  reverence 
for  their  memories.  Why  should  the  story 
remain  practically  unknown  ?  Why  should 
every  little  unimportant  detail  of  the  petty 
incidents  of  Queen  Anne's  War,  and  King 
Philip's  War,  and  Braddock's  campaign  be 
crammed  into  the  heads  of  children  who 
until  lately  never  heard  the  name  of  Por- 
tola?  The  beautiful  story  of  Paul  Revere's 
ride  is  known  to  everyone,  but  how  many 
know  the  story  of  the  invincible  determi- 
nation in  the  building  of  Ugarte's  ship?* 
William  Penn's  honest  treatment  of  the 
Indians  is  a  household  word  to  people  who 
never  knew  of  the  existence  of  Galvez  or 
Junipero  Serra.  The  story  of  the  hardships 
of  the  New  England  pilgrims  in  the  first 

*  The  "Triunfo  de  la  Cruz"  was  begun  July  16,  1719,  and 
finally  launched  at  Mulege,  near  Loreto,  Lower  California, 
on  the  Feast  of  the  Exaltation  of  the  Cross,  Sept.  14,  1719, 
on  its  mission  to  determine  whether  California  was  an 
island,  as  described  and  delineated  in  many  official  ac- 
counts and  maps  of  the  period. 

43 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

winter  on  the  "stern  and  rock-bound  coast" 
of  Massachusetts,  is  not  more  pitiful  than 
that  of  the  fate  of  the  immigrants  at  Don- 
ner  Lake.  The  thoughtful  magnanimity 
of  Captain  Philip  of  the  "  Texas "  in  the 
moment  of  victory,  in  the  sea-fight  at 
Santiago,  when  he  checked  his  men — 
"Don't  cheer,  boys;  the  poor  fellows  are 
drowning "  —  is  enshrined  in  the  hearts 
of  Americans  that  never  thrilled  with 
pride  at  Commodore  Sloat's  solemn  and 
patriotic  proclamation  upon  landing  his 
sailors  to  hoist  the  colors  at  Monterey, — 
a  proclamation  as  fine  and  dignified  as  a 
ritual,  that  should  be  committed  to  mem- 
ory, as  a  part  of  his  education,  by  every 
schoolboy  in  California.*  Longfellow's 

*The  original  Proclamation  of  Commodore  Sloat,  July 
7,  1846,  signed  by  his  own  hand,  here  produced,  is  pre- 
served in  Golden  Gate  Park  Museum,  San  Francisco,  to 
whose  Curator,  Mr.  George  Barren,  it  was  recently  pre- 
sented in  person  as  authentic  by  the  lately  deceased  Rev. 
S.  H.  Willey,  the  chaplain  of  the  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion of  1849  in  Colton  Hall. 

44 


• 


«/v 


¥  '/ 

^s,  /4r-^y 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURC4FUL 

"Courtship  of  Miles  Standish  and  Pris- 
cilla"  is  found  in  every  book  of  declama- 
tions, and  Bret  Harte's  poem  of  the  tragic 
love  story  of  Rezanov  and  Concha  Ar- 
guello  only  in  complete  editions  of  his 
works.*  Why  herald  the  ridiculous  at- 
tempt of  Rhode  Island  to  keep  out  of  the 
Union,  and  not  acclaim  the  splendid  effort 
of  California  to  break  into  it? 

The  importance  to  any  community  of 
its  local  history  being  incorporated  in 
the  national  story  in  its  proper  proportion 
and  perspective  cannot  be  overestimated. 
When  in  '11  the  ten  volumes  of  Thomas 
B.  Reed's  magnificent  collection,  entitled 
"Modern  Eloquence,"  we  find  but  one 
speech  that  was  delivered  in  California, 
and  that,  while  the  ancient  and  admired 
anecdotage  of  Chauncey  Depew  is  printed 
in  detail,  the  flaming  eloquence  of  E.  D. 
Baker  is  absolutely  ignored,  and  the  only 

*  See  Appendices  A  and  B. 

45 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

discourse  reported  of  Thomas  Starr  King 
is  one  that  he  delivered  in  Boston,  it  is 
time  for  the  dwellers  on  these  Western 
shores  to  ask  themselves  whether  these 
things  have  all  happened  by  accident,  or 
whether  the  older  commonwealths  of  this 
country  have  been  moved  by  a  pride  in 
their  history  and  in  their  traditions  to  take 
such  measures  for  their  preservation  and 
for  the  promotion  of  their  publication  as  to 
put  us  to  shame. 

Let  me  not  be  misunderstood.  I  would 
detract  nothing  from  the  glory  of  other 
sections  of  the  country.  I  would  minimize 
nothing  of  any  State's  accomplishment. 
Some  of  them  have  a  record  that  is  almost 
a  synonym  for  patriotism.  Their  tradition 
is  our  inheritance;  their  achievement  is 
our  gain.  Wisconsin  cannot  become  a  ver- 
itable workshop  of  social  and  economic 
experiment  without  the  nation  being  the 
beneficiary.  New  England  does  not  enrich 

46 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

her  own  literature  without  shedding  lus- 
ter on  the  literature  of  the  nation.  They 
and  theirs  belong  also  to  us  and  to  ours. 
Least  of  all,  do  I  forget  the  old  Bay  State 
and  her  high  tradition  —  State  of  Hancock 
and  Warren,  of  John  Quincy  Adams  and 
Webster,  of  Sumner  and  Phillips  and  Gar- 
rison and  John  A.  Andrew,  of  Longfellow 
and  Lowell  and  Whittier  and  Holmes. 
Her  hopes  are  my  hopes;  her  fears  are  my 
fears.  May  my  heart  cease  its  beating  if, 
in  any  presence  or  under  any  pressure,  it 
fail  to  respond  an  Amen  to  the  Puritan's 
prayer:  "God  save  the  Commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts." 

But  if  they  belong  to  us,  we  also  belong 
to  them.  If  their  traditions  belong  to  us, 
so  also  our  tradition  belongs  to  them.  We 
should  simply  strive  that  California  shall 
be  given  her  proper  proportionate  place  in 
the  history  of  the  country.  We  do  not  find 
fault  with  them  for  having  taken  the 

47 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

means  of  heralding  abroad  their  story  — 
we  commend  them  for  it.  We  point  to 
their  activity  so  as  to  arouse  our  own 
people  from  their  amazing  inaction.  What 
have  we  of  California  done  to  collect,  pre- 
serve and  diffuse  information  relating  to 
the  history  of  our  State?  And  what  have 
other  commonwealths  done? 

The  California  State  Historical  Society, 
first  organized  in  1853,  and  incorporated 
in  1876,  was  in  active  existence  from  1886 
to  1894,  and  published  some  valuable  his- 
torical material,  including  Father  Palou's 
"Noticias,"  Doyle's  "History  of  the  Pious 
Fund,"  Willey's  "History  of  the  College  of 
California"  and  some  interesting  papers  of 
Martin  Kellogg,  George  Davidson,  Ber- 
nard Moses,  William  Carey  Jones  and  T. 
H.  Hittell.  From  that  time  it  has  had  no 
active  existence.  There  has  not  been  a 
meeting  of  its  board  of  directors  since  1893, 
and  since  then  most  of  them  have  died.  It 

48 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

has  no  maps  and  no  manuscripts,  and  its 
library  of  500  printed  volumes  was  stored 
away  in  San  Francisco,  in  the  basement 
cellar  of  the  gentleman  who  is  still  nomi- 
nally its  president,  until  two  years  ago,  It 
never  owned  a  building  in  which  to  do  its 
work,  was  never  endowed,  and  to  all  in- 
tents and  purposes  has  been  dead  for 
twenty  years. 

When  we  look  beyond  the  Rockies,  how- 
ever, we  begin  to  appreciate  the  work  that 
is  being  done  by  the  State  historical  soci- 
eties organized  for  the  purpose  of  collect- 
ing, preserving  and  diffusing  historical  in- 
formation concerning  their  respective 
states.  The  statistics  outside  California, 
unless  otherwise  indicated,  are  down  to 
1905.  The  Massachusetts  and  Pennsyl- 
vania societies  are  prototypes  of  the  pri- 
vately organized  and  endowed  organiza- 
tions of  the  Eastern  states,  which,  without 
official  patronage,  have  attained,  strength, 

49 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

dignity  and  a  high  degree  of  usefulness, 
while  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Iowa  and 
Kansas  similarly  stand  for  the  State-sup- 
ported institutions  of  the  West.  Twelve 
societies  or  departments  own  their  own 
halls  —  those  valued  at  $100,000  or  over, 
being  Wisconsin,  $610,000;  Iowa,  $400,- 
000;  Pennsylvania  (1910),  $340,000;  Mas- 
sachusetts, $225,000;  and  Kansas,  $200,000. 
Thirteen  are  housed  in  their  respective 
State  capitols,  seven  are  quartered  in  State 
universities,  and  six  are  in  other  public 
buildings.  The  largest  State  appropriations 
are:  Wisconsin  (1910),  $31,000;  Minneso- 
ta, $20,000;  and  Iowa  (1910),  $12,000. 
The  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania  and 
Wisconsin  societies  are,  of  course,  the 
wealthiest  in  endowments;  possessing,  re- 
spectively (1912),  $420,600,  $170,000,  and 
(1910),  $63,000  in  vested  funds.  The  larg- 
est libraries  are  Pennsylvania  (1910),  285,- 
000  titles;  Wisconsin  (1910),  332,000; 

50 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

Massachusetts  (1912),  170,000;  Kansas 
(1910),  191,000;  and  New  Hampshire 
(1910),  117,500. 

Only  a  little  less  important  in  degree 
are  a  large  number  of  historical  societies 
which  represent  some  town  or  section.  For 
example:  The  Essex  Institute  of  Salem, 
Massachusetts,  with  its  income  of  (1913) 
$15,000,  library  of  400,000  titles,  and  build- 
ing valued  at  $175,000;  New  York  (City) 
Historical  Society,  with  1057  members, 
endowment  fund  aggregating  $236,000, 
yearly  income  of  $12,000,  and  a  building 
costing  $400,000;  the  Chicago  Historical 
Society,  with  a  library  of  130,000  titles, 
housed  in  a  $185,000  building  and  sup- 
ported by  endowment  funds  aggregating 
$111,814;  the  Long  Island  Historical 
Society  of  Brooklyn,  with  (1912)  102,500 
titles  in  its  own  building;  the  Western 
Reserve  of  Cleveland,  with  60,000  titles  in 
a  $55,000  building;  the  Worcester  (Massa- 

51 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

chusetts)  Society  of  Antiquities,  housing 
110,000  titles  within  a  building  valued  at 
$50,000;  and  the  Buffalo  Historical  So- 
ciety, which  has  a  library  of  34,000  titles 
in  a  $200,000  building  and  receives  a  mu- 
nicipal grant  of  $5,000  and  incidental  ex- 
penses per  annum.  These  are  simply  the 
most  highly  endowed.  Every  important 
town  and  city  in  those  sections  of  the  coun- 
try are  represented.  In  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts alone,  there  are,  besides  its  State 
Historical  Society,  thirty-six  local  histori- 
cal societies,  all  of  them  alive  and  active 
and  doing  good  work.  The  only  historical 
societies  worthy  of  the  name  in  California, 
outside  of  the  institution  I  shall  refer  to 
later  on,  are  the  Historical  Society  of 
Southern  California,  in  Los  Angeles,  with 
a  membership  of  fifty,  now  owning  a  li- 
brary of  6,000  titles,  housed  in  the  Museum 
of  History,  Science  and  Art  in  Exposition 
Park,  owned  by  the  county,  with  the  pub- 

52 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

lication  of  eight  volumes  of  local  history 
to  its  credit,  and  the  Archeological  Insti- 
tution of  the  Southwest,  also  of  Los  An- 
geles, the  latter  institution,  however,  be- 
ing not  exclusively  a  historical  society. 

I  submit  to  you,  as  Californians, 
whether  this  is  a  record  in  which  we  can 
take  any  pride.  With  the  exception  of  the 
pitiful  attempts  of  its  loyal  friends  from 
time  to  time  to  revive  the  California  His- 
torical Society,  absolutely  no  organization 
work  whatever,  except  what  has  lately 
been  initiated  at  Berkeley,  has  been  done 
by  any  public  institution  to  promote  the 
publication  of  California  history  or  the  col- 
lection of  material  therefor.  With  a  history 
such  as  ours,  with  its  halo  of  romance, 
with  its  peculiarity  of  incident,  with  its 
epoch-making  significance,  is  it  not  a  burn- 
ing shame  that  our  people  hcCVe  not  long 
ago,  either  through  private  endowment 
or  through  public  institutions, '  taken  as 

53 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

much  pride  in  the  preservation  of  our  his- 
tory as  its  makers  did  in  the  creation  of 
it?  Is  it  not  time  that  civic  societies  in 
every  section  of  this  State  should  combine 
and  work  together  for  the  creation  of  a 
public  sentiment  which  will  support  and 
uphold  any  institution  that  will  strive  to 
perpetuate  the  record  of  the  history  of  this 
great  commonwealth? 

Though  there  has  been  no  sustained  or 
organized  effort  on  the  part  of  the  State, 
or  of  any  community  in  the  State,  to  recog- 
nize the  duty  of  collecting  and  preserving 
the  priceless  records  of  its  historical 
growth,  yet,  by  the  luck  that  often  attends 
improvidence,  we  have  the  nucleus  of  a 
library  which  goes  far  toward  offsetting 
our  culpable  indifference. 

One  of  the  great  fires  that  swept  San 
Francisco  in  its  early  stages  just  missed 
the  Bancroft  Library,  then  at  the  corner 
of  Merchant  and  Montgomery  streets.  The 

54 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

later  fire  that  burned  the  building  on  Mar- 
ket Street,  near  Third,  next  door  to  the 
History  Building,  again  barely  missed  the 
Bancroft  Library.  And  when  it  was  moved 
to  the  building  especially  constructed  for  it 
at  Valencia  and  Mission  streets,  the  great 
conflagration  of  the  18th  of  April,  1906, 
just  failed  to  reach  it.  In  this  State  it  had 
remained  for  a  private  individual,  by  his 
life  work,  to  collect  and  preserve  a  library 
that  to  the  State  of  California  is  almost 
priceless  in  value.  This  magnificent  library 
the  State  of  California  has  recently  pur- 
chased and  installed  in  the  California 
Building,  at  the  State  University,  where 
its  usefulness  is  being  developed  by  the 
Academy  of  Pacific  Coast  History,  an 
association  organized  in  connection  with 
the  history  work  of  the  University.  By  a 
series  of  happy  accidents,  then,  we  are  in 
a  position  to  start  with  as  great  a  nucleus 
of  its  historical  data  as  any  •common- 

55 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

wealth  ever  had.  There  remains  the  great 
work  of  cataloguing  and  publishing,  ren- 
dering available  to  the  investigation  of 
scholarship  this  mass  of  original  data,  and 
the  State  should  immediately  provide  the 
liberal  fund  necessary  for  the  mechanical 
and  clerical  administrative  work. 

While  the  State  is  completing  the  trust 
with  reference  to  the  material  it  already 
has  on  hand,  the  all-destroying  march  of 
Time  still  goes  swiftly  on,  however.  Man- 
uscripts in  foreign  lands  are  fading  and 
being  lost,  parchments  are  becoming 
moth-eaten  or  mildewed,  whole  archives 
without  duplicate  are  at  the  mercy  of  a 
mob,  or  a  revolution,  or  a  conflagration, 
and  a  generation  of  men  and  women  still 
alive  are  quickly  passing  away,  carrying 
with  them  an  "unsung  Iliad"  of  the  Sierras 
and  the  plains.  In  the  presence  of  these 
facts,  we  should  not  stand  idle.  One  great 
fraternal  organization  has  already  done, 

56 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

and  is  still  loyally  doing,  more  than  its 
share.  In  the  great  work  of  endowing 
fellowships  in  Pacific  Coast  history  at 
Berkeley  there  is  room  enough  for  all. 
Here  is  an  opportunity  for  private  munifi- 
cence. A  fine  civism  will  not  find  a  more 
pressing  necessity,  or  a  more  splendid  op- 
portunity. An  endowment  of  $100,000  in- 
vested in  five  per  cent  bonds  will  yield  an 
annual  fellowship  fund  of  $5,000.  A  citizen 
looking  for  an  opportunity  to  do  some- 
thing worth  while  could  find  few  wor- 
thier objects.  The  fruit  of  such  an  endow- 
ment may  not  be  as  enduring  as  a  noble 
campanile,  or  an  incomparable  Greek  the- 
ater, yet,  in  a  sense,  it  will  be  more  last- 
ing than  either,  for  facts  become  history, 
and  history  survives,  when  campaniles 
fall  and  Greek  theaters  are  ground  to 
powder. 

It  may  be  that  we  have  not  realized  that, 
as  it  took  conscious  effort  to  create  the 

57 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

history  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  it  will  take 
conscious  effort  to  see  that  it  is  recorded 
and  given  its  proper  place  in  the  history 
of  the  country  at  large.  If  we  have  not 
understood  this  fact,  the  recital  of  the  ac- 
tivities of  historical  societies  and  other 
agencies  in  the  East  should  admonish  us 
that  it  is  time,  it  has  long  been  time,  for 
us  to  be  up  and  doing.  The  record  of  the 
history  that  is  now  in  the  making  will  take 
care  of  itself,  and  the  machinery  is  at  hand 
for  its  preservation.  If  we  shall  become  the 
center  of  a  new  culture,  be  assured  that  it 
will  be  its  own  press-agent.  If  we  shall  see 
grow  into  fruition  a  new  music  among  the 
redwoods  of  our  Bohemian  Grove,  there 
are  signs  that  the  world  will  not  be  kept 
ignorant  of  its  origin.  Literature  reflect- 
ing local  color  will  survive  as  the  historic 
basis  for  it  is  known  and  made  secure.  The 
debt  we  owe  to  Bret  Harte  for  "  The  Out- 
casts of  Poker  Flat/'  "  The  Luck  of  Roar- 

58 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

ing  Camp/'  and  all  the  individual  types  his 
genius  made  live  again,  to  Helen  Hunt 
Jackson  for  her  immortal  "Ramona,"  to 
Charles  Fletcher  Lummis  for  his  faithful 
chronicles  of  splendid  pioneering  and  re- 
search, will  only  be  more  appreciated  as 
our  knowledge  of  the  historic  past  be- 
comes more  accurate  and  sure. 

But  it  is  the  record  of  that  very  past, 
the  record  of  our  brief,  eventful  and  en- 
thralling past,  that  concerns  us  now.  Mon- 
uments and  reminders  of  it  exist  on  every 
side.  The  record  also  exists,  but  scattered 
over  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  it  has  not 
yet  been  collected  and  transcribed.  This 
history  cannot  be  properly  taught  until  it 
is  properly  written,  and  it  cannot  be  prop- 
erly written  until  all  essential  sources  shall 
have  been  explored.  Mines  of  information 
are  still  open  that  may  soon  be  closed,  per- 
haps forever.  Let  us  promote  such  action 
that  no  element  of  the  grand  drama  of 

59 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

\ 

world-politics  once  played  on  these  Pa- 
cific shores  shall  be  lost.  Let  us  see  to  it, 
also,  that  our  fathers'  high  achievement  in 
a  later  day  shall  not  be  unknown  to  their 
descendants.  In  this  cause,  let  us,  with 
hearts  courageous  and  minds  determined, 
each  make  good  his  "full  measure  of  de- 
votion." Thus,  may  California's  story  be- 
come known  of  all  Americans,  and  sink 
into  the  hearts  of  a  grateful  people. 


60 


APPENDIX  A. 

THE  LOVE-STORY  OF  CONCHA 
ARGUELLO. 

[The  occasion  of  the  following  remarks  was  the  placing 
of  a  bronze  tablet  upon  the  oldest  adobe  building  in 
San  Francisco,  the  former  residence  of  the  Co- 
mandante,  now  the  Officers'  Club,  at  the  Presidio, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  California  Historical  Land- 
marks League,  on  Serra  Day,  November  24,  1913. 
Maria  de  la  Concepcion  Marcela  Argiiello  (pronounced 
Arg-wail'-yo),  daughter  of  Don  Jose  Dario  Argiiello,  the 
Comandante  of  the  Presidio,  and  his  wife,  Maria  Ygnacia 
Moraga,  was  born  at  this  Presidio,  February  19,  1791 
(Original  Baptismal  Records  of  Old  Mission  Dolores, 
vol.  1,  fol.  96,  No.  931).  The  dates  of  Feb.  26,  1790,  given 
by  Bancroft,  founded  on  mere  family  correspondence, 
and  of  Feb.  13,  1791,  given  by  Mary  Graham,  founded 
upon  a  mistaken  reading  of  the  baptismal  record,  are 
both  incorrect.  The  Spanish  pet-name  for  Concepcion 
(pronounced  Con-sep-se-own',  with  the  accent  on  the 
last  syllable)  is  Concha  (pronounced  Cone-cha,  the 
accent  strongly  on  the  first  syllable,  and  the  cha  as  in 
Charles),  and  its  diminutives  are  Conchita  and  Con- 
chitita. 

Her  father  was  afterward  transferred  to  Santa  Barbara, 
and  from  there,  while  he  was  temporary  Governor 
of  California,  under  the  Spanish  regime,  on  Dec.  31, 
1814,  appointed  Governor  of  Lower  California.  Her 
brother,  Luis  Antonio  Argiiello,  born  June  21,  1784, 
also  at  the  Presidio,  died  March  27,  1830.  He  entered 

61 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

the  military  service  as  cadet,  Sept.  6,  1799;  was  alferez 
(ensign),  Dec.  23,  1800;  lieutenant,  March  10,  1806; 
succeeded  his  father  as  Comandante  of  San  Fran- 
cisco in  1806;  was  the  first  Governor  of  California 
under  Mexican  rule,  and  is  buried  in  the  old  Mission 
Dolores  cemetery,  where  the  finest  monument  in  the 
cemetery  stands  erected  to  his  memory.] 

I  am  glad  to  see  this  bronze  tablet  affixed  to 
this  noble  adobe  building.  I  take  it,  that  when 
some  of  the  wooden  eye-sores  that  here  abound 
are  torn  down,  in  the  necessary  beautification 
that  should  precede  1915,  this  old  historic  build- 
ing— a  monument  to  Spanish  chivalry  and  hos- 
pitality— will  be  spared.  We  have  too  few  of 
them  left  to  lose  any  of  them  now.  And  of  all 
buildings  in  the  world,  the  Presidio  army  post 
should  guard  this  one  with  jealous  care,  for  here 
was  enacted  one  of  the  greatest,  sweetest,  most 
tragic  love  stories  of  the  world — a  story  which 
is  all  the  Presidio's  own,  and  which  it  does  not 
have  to  share  with  any  other  army  post. 

To  you,  men  of  the  army,  my  appeal  ought  to 
be  an  easy  one.  You  have  no  desire  to  escape 
the  soft  impeachment  that  the  profession  of  arms 
has  ever  been  susceptible  to  the  charms  of  wom- 
an. The  relation  of  Mars  to  Venus  is  not  simply 
a  legend  of  history,  is  founded  on  no  mere  mythol- 
ogy—  their  relationship  is  as  sure  as  the  firma- 
ment, and  their  orbits  are  sometimes  very  close 
together. 

62 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

There  is  one  name  that  should  be  the  perennial 
toast  of  the  men  of  this  Presidio.  We  have  just 
celebrated  by  a  splendid  pageant  the  four-hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  the  discovery  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean  by  Balboa,  and  we  chose  for  queen  of  that 
ceremony  a  beautiful  girl  by  the  name  of  Con- 
chita.  There  was  another  Conchita  once,  the 
daughter  of  the  comandante  of  this  Presidio,  the 
bewitching,  the  beautiful,  the  radiant  Concha 
Argiiello. 

In  this  old  Presidio  she  was  born.  In  the  old 
Mission  Dolores  she  was  christened.  Here,  it  is 
told,  that  in  the  merry  exuberance  of  her  inno- 
cent babyhood,  she  danced  instead  of  prayed  be- 
fore the  shrine.  In  the  glory  of  these  sunrises  and 
day-vistas  and  sunsets,  she  passed  her  girlhood 
and  bloomed  into  womanhood.  In  this  old  adobe 
building  she  queened  it  supremely.  Here  she 
presided  at  every  hospitality;  here  she  was  the 
leader  of  every  fiesta. 

To  this  bay,  on  the  8th  of  April,  1806,*  in 
the  absence  of  her  stern  old  father  in  Monterey, 

*  G.  H.  von  Langsdorff,  Voyages  and  Travels  in  Various 
Parts  of  the  World  (Henry  Colburn,  London,  1814),  part 
2,  page  150.  Langsdorff,  of  course,  gives  it  as  March  28, 
1806,  old  style,  in  that  year  twelve  days  earlier  than  our 
calendar  west  of  the  180th  degree  of  longitude,  and  eleven 
days  earlier  than  our  calendar  east  of  that  degree.  H.  H. 
Bancroft  states  that  "the  loss  of  a  day  in  coming  eastward 
from  St.  Petersburg  was  never  taken  into  account  until 

63 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

and  while  the  Presidio  was  under  the  temporary 
command  of  her  brother  Luis,  there  came  from 
the  north  the  "Juno,"  the  vessel  of  the  Russian 
Chamberlain  Rezanov,  his  secret  mission  an  in- 
trigue of  some  kind  concerning  this  wonderland, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  great  Czar  at  St.  Peters- 
burg. He  found  no  difficulty  in  coming  ashore. 
Father  was  away.  Brother  was  kind.  Besides, 
the  Russian  marines  looked  good,  and  the  offi- 
cers knew  how  to  dance  as  only  military  men 
know  how  to  dance.  The  hospitality  was  Castil- 
ian,  unaffected,  intimate,  and  at  the  evenings' 
dances  in  this  old  building  their  barrego  was 
more  graceful  than  any  inartistic  tango,  and  in 
the  teaching  of  the  waltz  by  the  Russians — there 
was  no  "  hesitation." 


Alaska  was  transferred  to  the  United  States"  (Bancroft, 
Hist  of  California,  II,  page  299,  foot-note  9).  Certainly, 
Langsdorff  makes  no  such  allowance  in  his  narrative  of  old- 
style  dates,  and  in  the  only  place  east  of  the  180th  parallel 
where  he  computes  the  corresponding  new  style  he  adds 
eleven  days,  instead  of  twelve  (Voyages  and  Travels,  II,  page 
136).  Bancroft  adopts  the  date  of  April  5th,  basing  it  on  the 
Tikhmenef  narrative.  Richman  and  Eldredge  follow  him  in 
preferring  the  Tikhmenef  narrative  to  the  Langsdorff  nar- 
rative as  a  basis,  though  they  differ  from  each  other  in  re- 
ducing it  to  the  new  style  from  the  old  style,  Richman 
making  it  April  5th,  following  Bancroft  in  this  regard  also, 
and  Eldredge  making  it  April  4th.  I  prefer,  with  Father 
Engelhardt,  to  follow  as  a  basis  the  painstaking  German, 
Langsdorff,  who  kept  his  diary  day  by  day. 

64 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

Then  came  Love's  miracle ;  and  by  the  time  the 
comandante  returned  to  his  post,  ten  days  later, 
the  glances  of  the  bright-flashing  eyes  of  the 
daughter  had  more  effectively  pulverized  the 
original  scheme  of  the  chamberlain,  than  any  old 
guns  of  her  father  on  this  fort  could  have  done. 
Their  troth  was  plighted,  and,  as  he  belonged 
to  the  Greek  Church,  with  a  lover's  abandon,  he 
started  home  to  St.  Petersburg,  the  tremendous 
journey  of  that  day  by  way  of  Russian  America 
and  across  the  plains  of  Siberia,  to  obtain  his 
Emperor's  consent  to  his  marriage.  No  knight 
of  chivalry  ever  pledged  more  determined  devo- 
tion. He  assured  even  the  Governor  that,  im- 
mediately upon  his  return  to  St.  Petersburg,  he 
would  go  to  Madrid  as  ambassador  extraordinary 
from  the  Czar,  to  obviate  every  kind  of  misun- 
derstanding between  the  powers.  From  there  he 
would  proceed  to  Vera  Cruz,  or  some  other  Span- 
ish harbor  in  Mexico,  and  then  return  to  San 
Francisco,  to  claim  his  bride. 

On  the  2  ist  of  May,  about  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  the  "Juno"  weighed  anchor  for  Sitka, 
and  ,in  passing  the  fort,  then  called  the  fort  of 
San  Joaquin,  she  saluted  it  with  seven  guns — and 
received  in  return  a  salute  of  nine.  The  old  chron- 
icler who  accompanied  the  expedition  says  that 
the  Governor,  with  the  whole  Arguello  family, 
and  several  other  friends  and  acquaintances,  col- 

65 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

lected  at  the  fort  and  waived  an  adieu  with  hats 
and  handkerchiefs.*  And  one  loyal  soul  stood 
looking  seaward,  till  a  vessel's  hull  sank  below 
the  horizon. 

How  many  fair  women,  through  the  pitiless 
years,  have  thus  stood — looking  seaward!  Once  \ 
more  the  envious  Fates  prevailed.  Unknown  to  | 
his  sweetheart,  Rezanov  died  on  the  overland 
journey  from  Okhotsk  to  St.  Petersburg,  in  a 
little  town  in  the  snows  of  central  Siberia.  With 
a  woman's  instinctive  and  unyielding  faith,  the 
beautiful  girl  waited  and  watched  for  his  return, 
waited  the  long  and  dreary  years  till  the  roses  of 
youth  faded  from  her  cheeks.  True  heart,  no 
other  voice  could  reach  her  ear!  Dead  to  all 
allurement,  she  first  joined  a  secular  order,  "dedi- 
cating her  life  to  the  instructions  of  the  young 
and  the  consolation  of  the  sick,"  and  finally  en- 
tered the  Dominican  sisterhood,  where  she  gave  | 
the  remainder  of  her  life  to  the  heroic  and  self-] 
effacing  service  of  her  order.  Not  until  late  in 
life  did  she  have  the  consolation  of  learning — and> 
then  quite  by  accident — that  her  lover  had  not 
been  false  to  her,  but  had  died  of  a  fall  from  his 
horse  on  his  mission  to  win  her.  Long  years 


*  G.  H.  von  Langsdorff,  Voyages  and  Travels,  part  2, 
pages  183,  217.  Tikhmenefs  narrative  would  make  the 
"Juno"  leave  on  the  19th  of  May,  but  Langsdorff  was  him- 
self aboard  and  kept  a  log. 

66 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

afterward  she  died,  in  1857,  at  the  convent  of  St. 
Catherine;  and  today,  while  he  sleeps  beneath  a 
Greek  cross  in  the  wilds  of  Siberia,  she  is  at  rest 
beneath  a  Roman  cross  in  the  little  Dominican  / 
cemetery  at  Benicia,  across  the  Bay.* 

This  history  is  true.  These  old  walls  were  wit- 
nesses to  part  of  it.  These  hills  and  dales  were 
part  of  the  setting  for  their  love-drama.  One 
picnic  was  taken  by  boat  to  what  is  now  called 
the  Island  of  Belvedere  yonder.  One  horseback 
outing  was  taken  to  the  picturesque  canon  of  San 
Andres,  so  named  by  Captain  Rivera  and  Father 
Palou  in  1774.  Gertrude  Atherton  has  given  us 


*Nicolai  Petrovich  Rezanov,  Chamberlain  to  the  Czar, 
died  March  13,  1807  (March  1,  old  style),  at  the  little  town 
of  Krasnoiarsk,  capital  of  the  Province  of  Yenisseisk,  now 
a  station  on  the  Trans-Siberian  Railroad,  where  his  body 
is  still  interred.  Von  Langsdorff  visited  his  grave  Dec.  9, 
1807  (Nov.  27,  old  style),  and  found  a  tomb  which  he  de- 
scribed as  "a  large  stone,  in  the  fashion  of  an  altar,  but 
without  any  inscription."  (Voyages  and  Travels,  part  2, 
page  385.)  Sir  George  Simpson  visited  the  grave  in  1842, 
and  states  that  a  tomb  had  been  erected  by  the  Russian 
American  Company  in  1831,  but  does  not  describe  it. 
Whether  this  is  a  mistake  in  the  date  on  his  part,  or 
whether  a  later  and  more  elaborate  tomb  displaced  the  first 
one,  I  have  not  yet  been  able  to  ascertain.  It  is  certain, 
however,  that  Sir  George  Simpson  had  read  von  Langs- 
dorff's  book. 

The  body  of  Sor  Dominga  Argiiello,  commonly  called 
Sister  Mary  Dominica  (Concepcion  Argiiello)  after  her 

67 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

the  novel,  and  Bret  Harte  has  sung  the  poem, 
founded  upon  it.* 

When  we  think  of  the  love  stories  that  have 
survived  the  ages,  Alexander  and  Thais,  Pericles 
and  Aspasia,  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  and  all  the 
rest  of  them — some  of  them  a  narrative  unfit  to 
handle  with  tongs — shall  we  let  this  local  story 


death,  which  occurred  Dec.  23,  1857,  was  first  interred  in 
the  small  cemetery  in  the  convent  yard,  but  in  the  latter 
part  of  1897  (Original  Annals,  St.  Catherine's,  Benicia), 
when  the  bodies  were  removed,  it  was  reinterred  in  the 
private  cemetery  of  the  Dominican  order  overlooking 
Suisun  Bay,  on  the  heights  back  of  the  old  military  bar- 
racks. Her  grave  is  the  innermost  one,  in  the  second  row, 
of  the  group  in  the  southwesterly  corner  of  the  cemetery. 
It  is  marked  by  a  humble  white  marble  slab,  on  which  is 
graven  a  little  cross  with  her  name  and  the  date  of  her 
death.  This  grave  deserves  to  be  as  well  known  as  that 
of  Heloise  and  Abelard,  in  the  cemetery  of  Pere  Lachaise. 

*  "Rezanov,"  by  Gertrude  Atherton  (John  Murray,  Lon- 
don). See  also  Appendix  B.  The  quaint  poem  of  Richard 
E.  White  to  "The  Little  Dancing  Saint"  (Overland,  May, 
1914)  is  worthy  of  mention,  though  the  place  of  her  child- 
hood is  mistakenly  assumed  to  be  Lower  California  instead 
of  San  Francisco.  It  is  to  be  hoped  also  that  the  very 
clever  skit  of  Edward  F.  O'Day,  entitled  "The  Defeat  of 
Rezanov,"  purely  imaginative  as  a  historical  incident,  but 
with  a  wealth  of  local  "atmosphere,"  written  for  the  Fam- 
ily Club,  of  San  Francisco,  and  produced  at  one  of  its 
"Farm  Plays,"  will  yet  be  published,  and  not  buried  in  the 
archives  of  a  club. 

68 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

die?  Shall  not  America  furnish  a  newer  and 
purer  standard?  If  to  such  a  standard  Massa- 
chusetts is  to  contribute  the  Courtship  of  Miles 
Standish,  may  not  California  contribute  the 
Courtship  of  Rezanov?  You  men  of  this  army 
post  have  a  peculiar  right  to  proclaim  this  senti- 
ment; in  such  an  enlistment  you,  of  all  men, 
would  have  the  right  to  unsheathe  a  flaming 
sword.  For  this  memory  of  the  comandante's 
daughter  is  yours — yours  to  cherish,  yours  to  pro- 
tect. In  the  barracks  and  on  parade,  at  the  dance 
and  in  the  field,  this  "one  sweet  human  fancy"  be- 
longs to  this  Presidio;  and  no  court-martial  nor 
departmental  order  can  ever  take  it  from  you. 


69 


[TRANSLATION  OF  BAPTISMAL  RECORD.] 


931. 

Maria  de  la 

Conception 

Marcela 

Argue  llo, 

Female 

Spanish 

Infant 

65. 


On  the  26th  day  of  February  of  the  year 
1791,  in  the  church  of  this  Mission  of  our 
Holy  Patron  St.  Francis,  I  solemnly  baptized 
a  girl  born  on  the  19th  day  of  the  said  month, 
the  legitimate  daughter  of  Don  Jose  Argiiello, 
lieutenant-captain,  and  commander  of  the 
neighboring  royal  presidio,  a  native  of  the  city 
of  Queretaro,  New  Spain,  and  of  Dona  Maria 
Ygnacia  Moraga,  a  native  of  the  royal  presidio 
of  El  Altar,  Sonora.  I  gave  her  the  names 
of  Maria  de  la  Conception  Marcela.  Her  god- 
father was  Don  Jose  de  Zufiiga,  lieutenant- 
captain  and  commander  of  the  royal  presidio 
of  San  Diego,  by  proxy,  authenticated  by  the 
colonel  commandant-inspector  and  Governor 
of  this  province,  Sefior  Don  Pedro  Fages,  in 
the  presence  of  two  witnesses,  namely,  Seiior 
Manuel  de  Vargas,  sergeant  of  the  company 
of  Monterey,  and  Juan  de  Dios  Ballesteros, 
corporal  of  the  same,  delegated  in  due  form  to 
Manuel  Baronda,  corporal  of  the  company  of 
this  royal  presidio  of  pur  Holy  Patron  St. 
Francis,  who  accepted  it,  and  held  the  said 
girl  in  his  arms  at  the  time  of  her  baptism.  I 
notified  him  that  he  was  not  contracting  kinship 
nor  the  obligations  of  godfather,  and  that  he 
should  so  advise  his  principal,  in  order  that 
the  latter  might  be  informed  of  the  spiritual 
kinship  and  of  other  obligations  contracted, 
according  as  I  explained  them  to  him.  And  in 
witness  whereof,  I  sign  it  on  the  day,  month 
and  year  above  given. 

FRAY  PEDRO  BENITO  CAMBON  (rubric). 


70 


ORIGINAL  RECORD  OF  BAPTISM  OF  CQNCEPCJON.  APx^U 


APPENDIX  B. 

CONCEPCION  DE  ARGUELLO. 

(Presidio  de  San  Francisco,  1806.) 

By  Bret  Harte. 

I. 

Looking  seaward,  o'er  the  sand-hills  stands  the 

fortress,  old  and  quaint, 
By  the  San  Francisco  friars  lifted  to  their  patron 

saint, — 

Sponsor  to  that  wondrous  city,  now  apostate  to 
the  creed, 

On  whose  youthful  walls  the  Padre  saw  the  an- 
gel's golden  reed; 

All  its  trophies  long  since  scattered,  all  its  blazon 

brushed  away; 
And  the  flag  that  flies  above  it  but  a  triumph  of 

today. 

Never  scar  of  siege  or  battle  challenges  the  wan- 
dering eye, 

Never  breach  of  warlike  onset  holds  the  curious 
passer-by ; 

71 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

Only  one  sweet  human  fancy  interweaves  its 

threads  of  gold 
With  the  plain  and  homespun  present,  and  a  love 

that  ne'er  grows  old; 

Only  one  thing  holds  its  crumbling  walls  above 

the  meaner  dust, — 
Listen  to  the  simple  story  of  a  woman's  love  and 

trust. 

II. 

Count  von  ResanofT,*  the  Russian,  envoy  of  the 

mighty  Czar, 
Stood  beside  the  deep  embrasures,  where  the 

brazen  cannon  are. 

He  with  grave  provincial  magnates  long  had  held 

serene  debate 
On  the  Treaty  of  Alliance  and  the  high  affairs  of 

state ; 

*  If  the  facsimile  of  the  chamberlain's  signature,  when 
written  in  Roman  alphabetical  character,  is  as  set  forth  in 
part  2  of  the  Russian  publication  "Istoritcheskoe  Obosrenie 
Obrasovania  RjossiiskorAmerikanskoi  Kompanii,"  by  P. 
Tikhmenef,  published  in  1863,  by  Edward  Weimar,  in  St. 
Petersburg,  then  the  proper  spelling  is  "Rezanov,"  the 
accent  on  the  penult,  and  the  "v"  pronounced  like  "ff." 

For  metrical  purposes  Bret  Harte  has  here  taken  the 
same  kind  of  liberty  with  "ResanofT,"  and  in  another  poem 
with  Portola,  as  Byron  took  with  Trafalgar,  in  Childe 
Harold. 

72 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

He  from  grave  provincial  magnates  oft  had 
turned  to  talk  apart 

With  the  Comandante's  daughter  on  the  ques- 
tions of  the  heart, 

Until  points  of  gravest  import  yielded  slowly  one 

by  one, 
And  by  Love  was  consummated  what  Diplomacy 

begun ; 

Till  beside  the  deep  embrasures,  where  the 

brazen  cannon  are, 
He  received  the  twofold  contract  for  approval  of 

the  Czar; 

Till  beside  the  brazen  cannon  the  betrothed  bade 
adieu, 

And  from  sallyport  and  gateway  north  the  Rus- 
sian eagles  flew. 

III. 

Long  beside  the  deep  embrasures,  where  the 

brazen  cannon  are, 
Did  they  wait  the  promised  bridegroom  and  the 

answer  of  the  Czar; 

Day  by  day  on  wall  and  bastion  beat  the  hollow, 

empty  breeze, — 
Day  by  day  the  sunlight  glittered  on  the  vacant, 

smiling  seas; 

73 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

Week  by  week  the  near  hills  whitened  in  their 

dusty  leather  cloaks, — 
Week  by  week  the  far  hills  darkened  from  the 

fringing  plain  of  oaks; 

Till  the  rains  came,  and  far  breaking,  on  the 

fierce  southwester  tost, 
Dashed  the  whole  long  coast  with  color,  and  then 

vanished  and  were  lost. 

So  each  year  the  seasons  shifted, —  wet  and  warm 

and  drear  and  dry; 
Half  a  year  of  clouds  and  flowers,  half  a  year  of 

dust  and  sky. 

Still  it  brought  no  ship  nor  message, — brought 
no  tidings,  ill  or  meet, 

For  the  statesmanlike  Commander,  for  the  daugh- 
ter fair  and  sweet. 

Yet  she  heard  the  varying  message,  voiceless  to 

all  ears  beside: 
"  He  will  come,"  the  flowers  whispered ;  "  Come 

no  more,"  the  dry  hills  sighed. 

Still  she  found  him  with  the  waters  lifted  by  the 

morning  breeze, — 
Still  she  lost  him  with  the  folding  of  the  great 

white-tented  seas; 

74 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

Until  hollows  chased  the  dimples  from  her 

cheeks  of  olive  brown, 
And  at  times  a  swift,  shy  moisture  dragged  the 

long  sweet  lashes  down; 

Or  the  small  mouth  curved  and  quivered  as  for 
some  denied  caress, 

And  the  fair  young  brow  was  knitted  in  an  in- 
fantine distress. 

'••  '"& '-  ' 

Then  the  grim  Commander,  pacing  where  the 

brazen  cannon  are, 

Comforted  the  maid  with  proverbs,  wisdom 
gathered  from  afar; 

Bits  of  ancient  observation  by  his  fathers  gar- 
nered, each 

As  a  pebble  worn  and  polished  in  the  current  of 
his  speech: 

"'Those  who  wait  the  coming  rider  travel  twice 

as  far  as  he ;' 
'Tired  wench  and  coming  butter  never  did  in 

time  agree;' 

"  'He  that  getteth  himself  honey,  though  a  clown, 

he  shall  have  flies;' 
'In  the  end  God  grinds  the  miller ;'.  'In  the  dark 

the  mole  has  eyes;' 

75 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

"  'He  whose  father  is  Alcalde  of  his  trial  hath  no 

fear/- 
And be  sure  the  Count  has  reasons  that  will 

make  his  conduct  clear." 

Then  the  voice  sententious  faltered,  and  the  wis- 
dom it  would  teach 

Lost  itself  in  fondest  trifles  of  his  soft  Castilian 
speech ; 

And  on  "Concha,"  "Conchitita,"  and  "Conchita" 

he  would  dwell 
With  the  fond  reiteration  which  the  Spaniard 

knows  so  well. 

So  with  proverbs  and  caresses,  half  in  faith  and 

half  in  doubt, 
Every  day  some  hope  was  kindled,  flickered, 

faded,  and  went  out. 

}  * 

IV. 

Yearly,  down  the  hillside  sweeping,  came  the 

stately  cavalcade, 
Bringing  revel  to  vaquero,  joy  and  comfort  to 

each  maid; 


76 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

Bringing  days  of  formal  visit,  social  feast  and 

rustic  sport, 
Of  bull-baiting  on  the  plaza,  of  love-making  in 

the  court. 

Vainly  then  at  Concha's  lattice,  vainly  as  the  idle 

wind, 
Rose  the  thin  high  Spanish  tenor  that  bespoke 

the  youth  too  kind ; 

Vainly,   leaning  from   their  saddles,  caballeros, 

bold  and  fleet, 
Plucked  for  her  the  buried  chicken  from  beneath 

their  mustang's  feet; 

So  in  vain  the  barren  hillsides  with  their  gay 

scrapes  blazed, — 
Blazed  and  vanished  in  the  dust-cloud  that  their 

flying  hoofs  had  raised. 

| 
Then  the  drum  called  from  the  rampart,  and  once 

more,  with  patient  mien, 
The  Commander  and  his  daughter  each  took  up 

the  dull  routine, — 

Each  took  up  the  petty  duties  of  a  life  apart  and 

lone, 
Till  the  slow  years  wrought  a  music  in  its  dreary 

monotone. 

77 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

V. 

Forty  years  on  wall  and  bastion  swept  the  hollow 
idle  breeze, 

Since  the  Russian  eagle  fluttered  from  the  Cali- 
fornia seas; 

Forty  years  on  wall  and  bastion  wrought  its  slow 

but  sure  decay, 
And  St.  George's  cross  was  lifted  in  the  port  of 

Monterey ; 

And  the  citadel  was  lighted,  and  the  hall  was 

gayly  drest, 
All  to  honor  Sir  George  Simpson,  famous  traveler 

and  guest.* 


*The  mention  of  Monterey  is  a  poetic  license.  Sir 
George  Simpson  actually  met  her  and  acquainted  her  for 
the  first  time  with  the  immediate  cause  of  her  lover's  death, 
at  Santa  Barbara,  where  she  was  living  with  the  De  la 
Guerra  family,  Jan.  24, 1842,  after  her  return  from  Lower 
California,  following  the  death  of  her  parents.  "Though 
Dona  Concepcion,"  wrote  Sir  George  Simpson,  in  1847, 
"apparently  loved  to  dwell  on  the  story  of  her  blighted  af- 
fections, yet,  strange  to  say,  she  knew  not,  till  we  mentioned 
it  to  her,  the  immediate  cause  of  the  chancellor's  sudden 
death.  This  circumstance  might  in  some  measure  be  ex- 
plained by  the  fact  that  Langsdorff's  work  was  not  pub- 
lished before  1814 ;  but  even  then,  in  any  other  country  than 
California,  a  lady  who  was  still  young,  would  surely  have 
seen  a  book,  which,  besides  detailing  the  grand  incident  of 

78 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

Far  and  near  the  people  gathered  to  the  costly 

banquet  set, 
And  exchanged  congratulations  with  the  English 

baronet ; 

Till,  the  formal  speeches  ended,  and  amidst  the 

laugh  and  wine, 
Some  one  spoke  of  Concha's  lover, —  heedless  of 

the  warning  sign. 

Quickly  then  cried  Sir  George  Simpson:  "Speak 

no  ill  of  him,  I  pray! 
He  is  dead.  He  died,  poor  fellow,  forty  years  ago 

this  day, — 

"Died  while  speeding  home  to  Russia,  falling 

from  a  fractious  horse. 
Left  a  sweetheart,  too,  they  tell  me.   Married,.  I 

suppose,  of  course! 

"Lives  she  yet?"  A  deathlike  silence  fell  on  ban- 
quet, guests,  and  hall, 

And  a  trembling  figure  rising  fixed  the  awestruck 
gaze  of  all. 


her  life,  presented  so  gratifying  a  portrait  of  her  charms." 
(An  Overland  Journey  Round  the  World,  during  the  years 
1841  and  1842,  by  Sir  George  Simpson,  Governor-in-chief  of 
the  Hudson  Bay  Company's  Territories,  published  by  Lea 
and  Blanchard,  Philadelphia,  in  1847,  page*  207.) 

79 


CALIFORNIA  ROMANTIC  AND  RESOURCEFUL 

Two  black  eyes  in  darkened  orbits  gleamed  be-. 

neath  the  nun's  white  hood;* 
Black  serge  hid  the  wasted  figure,  bowed  and 

stricken  where  it  stood. 


"Lives  she  yet?"  Sir  George  repeated.   All 

hushed  as  Concha  drew 
Closer  yet  her  nun's  attire.    "  Sefior,  pardon,  she 

died,  too!" 

*She  did  not  actually  receive  the  white  habit  till  she  was 
received  into  the  Dominican  sisterhood,  April  11,  1851,  by 
Padre  F.  Sadoc  Vilarrasa,  in  the  Convent  of  Santa  Cata- 
lina  de  Sena  (St.  Catherine  of  Siena),  at  Monterey,  being 
the  first  one  to  enter,  where  she  took  the  perpetual  vow 
April  13,  1852  (Original  Records,  Book  of  Clothings  and 
Professions,  page  1,  now  at  Dominican  -  College,  at  San 
Rafael,  Cal.),  and  where  she  remained  continuously  till 
the  convent  was  transferred  to  Benicia,  Aug.  26,  1854.  There 
being  no  religious  order  for  women  in  California  until  the 
Dominican  sisterhood  was  founded  at  Monterey,  March  13, 
1851  (Original  Annals,  at  Benicia,  Reg.  1,  pages  1  and  14), 
she  had  at  first  to  content  herself  with  joining  the  Third 
Order  of  St.  Francis  "in  the  world,"  and  it  was  really  the 
dark  habit  of  this  -secular  order  which  constituted  the  "nun's 
attire"  at  the  time  Sir  George  Simpson  met  her  in  1842. 


80 


i  u  tne  circulation  aesK  or  any 
University  of  California  Library 
or  to  the 

NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
Bldg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 
2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 

(510)642-6753 
1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing  books 

to  NRLF 
Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days 

prior  to  due  date 


DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


1 1  7994 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


